The 57-year-old TV personality and Big Brother legend discussed the memory loss she experienced following brain surgery
Davina McCall has shared a frightening experience she had following her brain surgery. The TV star discovered she had a rare 14-mm colloid cyst, which affects only three in every million people, during a chance health check in 2023.
Thankfully, the tumour was benign, and in 2024, Davina had neurosurgeon Kevin O’Neill successfully remove it. But in a new episode of her podcast, Begin Again, she revealed just how much it affected her memory and perception of everything around her.
In a conversation with Heart Radio DJ, Jamie Theakston, she said: “Can I tell you a weird thing? I understand a bit about [symptoms of dementia] because I woke up with no short-term memory, and it’s come back very, very slowly over three months. And I struggled with all of those feelings when I was just out of hospital.”
Jamie said: “Like an Alzheimer’s,” to which Davina replied: “Yeah, it was. I got paranoid. I got like, insecure. I didn’t trust people that I love and trust. It was horrible, but I could feel it coming back. Rather than losing it.
“It gave me a new, well, obviously, you know, my dad died of Alzheimer’s. It gave me a new appreciation for what he’d been through and for what your dad is going through now, and what it really feels like it, it’s extraordinary.”
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological condition that progressively impairs memory, cognitive abilities, and ultimately, the capacity to perform basic tasks. It is the most common form of dementia, which currently impacts more than 944,000 people in the UK.
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Davina’s father passed away from dementia in 2022, just six years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Davina, 57, previously said that he had consistently been her rock and she’d always slightly ‘hero-worshipped’ him.
Speaking with the Alzheimer’s Society in 2017 before he passed away, she said: “I’ve always slightly hero-worshipped him. So when he started saying funny things like, ‘I took the overland train’ and ‘Call me when your work is less explosive’, it didn’t take us long to all come together and ask each other if we should be concerned.
“The psychologist that first assessed him said that he could have been affected for a while – but he is so clever that he had come up with strategies. That’s my dad – see a problem, come up with a strategy.” She added: “I have grieved the loss of my old dad.”
Besides the temporary loss of her memory, Davina also lost a worrying four kilograms of muscle in the aftermath of her brain surgery. While it’s been a long road to recovery, she now feels much stronger in her body and mind.
“I felt like my memory was coming back and I was feeling stronger in myself, in my mind,” she recently told Women’s Health. “But working on my body was going to be the last bit of joy to come back to my life.”
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Early red flags of dementia
Dementia can come in different forms, and each type can impact people in varying ways. However, a few common red flags usually appear during its onset.
According to the NHS, these are:
- Finding it hard to carry out familiar daily tasks, such as getting confused over the correct change when shopping
- Memory loss
- Difficulty concentrating
- Being confused about time and place
- Mood changes
- Struggling to follow a conversation or find the right word
Anyone concerned about their symptoms should seek guidance from a medical professional.