Davina McCall ‘feels 25 again’ after bizarre difference in thoughts post-brain surgery
The TV star underwent surgery in November.
Davina McCall is ready to live – and think – it up.
The Channel 4 presenter, 57, has opened up in a tell-all interview about her benign brain tumour that she had surgically removed last November.
While she has experienced many differences in her health since surgery, including feeling like a 25-year-old again, one more bizarre result of being tumour-free is that she is having a lot more thoughts.
Sharing an insight into her symptoms prior to her diagnosis, the mother of three said she was experiencing ‘fogginess, an inability to remember’ and believed they were in relation to the menopause.
However, upon receiving her diagnosis, she was told they were symptoms of the cyst, which was sitting on her short-term memory pathway.
‘I’d started meditating, leading a more spiritual life, trying to calm my mind down, and I’d noticed that I wasn’t thinking so much,’ she explained to The Times. ‘A week after the operation, it was like, ‘Wow. My mind feels more active.’
The Masked Singer star is ready to live it up (Picture: Nick England/Getty Images)The Masked Singer panellist’s tumour was discovered in August 2023 completely by chance when she underwent a routine body scan.
It uncovered a 14mmm colloid cyst in the middle of her brain, which required surgery to be removed, a surgery that, if it went wrong, could have resulted in a stroke or never being able to hold short-term memory beyond five minutes.
The latter would have meant career death for the TV presenter. So, she did what anyone with access to some of the best medical care around would do and had three separate consults with three prestigious neurosurgeons before allowing Dr Kevin O’Neill to operate on her.
In the lead-up to her surgery, Davina got in the best shape of her life to give herself the best chance on the table. She organised her affairs, including her will, and wrote letters for her three adult children, Holly, 23, Tilly, 21, and Chester, 18, whom she shares with ex-husband Matthew Robertson.
‘I set up my whole life before I went into the operating theatre knowing that, if I didn’t make it, the kids would be OK. I needed to go under the anaesthetic knowing I had my ducks in a row,’ she told the publication.
She also made sure the surgery was booked well before her son’s A-levels this May, as she wanted to make sure he would be ‘grieving’ during the important tests if she didn’t make it through the operation.
Thankfully, she came through the surgery with flying colours, and now, as well as having a few extra thoughts, she has a goal: to live.
Davina has three children, including Holly (left) and Tilly (right) (Picture: Instagram/ _tillyrobertson)Always known for her ‘Friday night, anything could happen vibe,’ that has only increased since the successful surgery. Davina says she now feels she has the ‘energy and vitality of a 25-year-old’.
‘I reckon I’ve got another two or three months before I’m fully energised, but I love work,’ she told the news outlet as she discussed her recovery.
‘I love life. I love dancing. Now I just want to do all those things as much as possible. I don’t need a rest. I’m not tired. I want to live life now. Bucket lists are for when you are living. Buy the dress! Go to the party even if you are working and only going to get five hours’ sleep.’
Davina’s revelation comes after she told fans she felt comforted by her late father in the aftermath of her surgery.
The star’s dad died in 2022 at age 77 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Marking the third anniversary of his death last month in an Instagram post, Davina told fans that he ‘visited her after her operation’ and it was something that ‘felt nice’ as she admitted it felt ‘soooooo real’.
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