TV star Davina McCall fought back the tears in a tell-all interview about her brain surgeon Kevin O’Neill with whom she now shares a powerful bond and close friendship
Stoic Davina McCall ensured her brain surgeon was “in the calmest place” before her complex surgery following her brain cyst, she has revealed.
The TV presenter, 57, admitted she was tempted to beg consultant neurosurgeon Kevin O’Neill, 62, to “keep me alive” for the sake of her three children. However, before the complex, six-hour operation, Davina bravely remained calm and instead told the doctor: “‘You do whatever you need to do. I put all my faith in you’.”
And she credits these 14 words for helping the procedure go smoothly in November. Now, she says she has the energy and vitality of a 25-year-old – and is gearing up to soon present Stranded on Honeymoon Island for the BBC.
“He doesn’t need me screaming at him to keep me alive. He needs to be in the calmest and most confident place. I wanted to empower Kevin to do the best job he could,” Davina, who was rushed to hospital after a cyst was found by chance in a routine body scan, continued.
In one of her first interviews following the operation, Davina fought back the tears to praise Dr O’Neill, with whom she now shares a powerful bond and close friendship. The medic opened up Davina’s skull from ear to ear and removed the 14mm colloid cyst sitting in the third ventricle, between the left and right hemispheres of the celeb’s brain.
Dr O’Neill likened the operation to defusing a bomb as he peeled back the scalp, drilled into the skull and had GPS equipment with trackers placed over Davina’s head like little stickers.
The TV presenter knew the procedure was fraught with risks so she finalised her will, and wrote letters of wishes for her three adult children, Holly, Tilly and Chester. Recalling her ordeal, Davina said: “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. It was my way of letting go. I am so grateful for that process, because I realised through all of it that, if I were not around, my children would be on the right path.”
Davina and Dr O’Neill, who calls himself an “empath”, met for the first time since the operation this week, reports The Times. They both spoke to the publication, each declaring their admiration for each other. They are now friends; as is Davina with Dr O’Neill’s partner, a fashion model.
Davina, who presented Big Brother, told the publication: “We’re going to be friends for the rest of our lives…We are going to go out to dinner with our partners! We are GOING TO DO IT!”
Dr O’Neill, who operates privately at the Cleveland Clinic in central London and works for the NHS at the Imperial College Healthcare Trust, said: “Davina is a special person. Some people are so terrified they can’t make a decision [about what to do].”
“You can’t overthink things. You can’t let [negative] thoughts overtake you. I’ve been in extreme surgical cases where you think, ‘S***! I want to run away.’ But you have to gather yourself, give yourself a talk: ‘You’ve done this before; you’ll do it again. You can do this really well. What are you afraid of?’
“I knew if I let these thoughts come in with Davina, I’d start to freeze, and so you have to have something that overpowers them. That is that I am experienced and highly regarded by my peers and I do this a lot.”