The TV presenter, 57, underwent brain surgery after a rare 14-mm colloid cyst was discovered during a health check up
Davina McCall has shared her experience of readjusting to everyday life after brain surgery. The TV personality 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 it successfully removed by neurosurgeon Kevin O’Neill. Now, she has detailed her lengthy recovery process and how long it’s taken to return to the activities she loves most.
In a new interview, Davina revealed she’d lost a worrying four kilograms of muscle in the aftermath of her surgery, but the ordeal has only confirmed her passion for fitness. “I felt like my memory was coming back and I was feeling stronger in myself, in my mind,” she told Women’s Health.
“But working on my body was going to be the last bit of joy to come back to my life.” Davina has been undergoing a strength training programme designed by Natalie Bhangal at Own Your Goals.
Her plan encompasses no more than four workouts per week, all 30 minutes long at most, in addition to one moderate-intensity cardio session, and two low-intensity walks. While this may appear simple, experts suggest that draining workouts aren’t always ideal for women over 30.
Davina added: “I felt like it was the missing piece of me.” Earlier this year, Davina and her consultant neurosurgeon also revealed just how serious the cyst removal operation was.
If the surgery had been unsuccessful, Davina could have suffered a stroke or lost her ability to ‘hold a short-term memory beyond five minutes’, according to The Times.
However, if the cyst had remained undetected, or if Davina had chosen not to have it removed, she could have died ‘suddenly’ without any warning or chance to say goodbye to her family and friends.
O’Neill was the second of three doctors Davina consulted about the cyst. The initial specialist recommended endoscopic surgery, a minimally invasive technique that involves inserting instruments through ‘small holes’ in the skull.
But O’Neill thought it would be ‘better to open her head right up’ to minimise harm to healthy brain tissue. During an intensive five-hour surgery, he cut open her skull ‘from ear to ear’, successfully extracting a 14mm colloid cyst located in the ‘third ventricle’, a deep-seated area of the brain.
Talking to the publication, O’Neill said: “The operation was like a layer cake: scalp, then the skull, then the journey down into the centre of the brain.
“…Like defusing a bomb, you cut one wire, then down into the next bit, cut that wire, then you get to the last wire, the 14mm cyst, and you’re thinking, ‘S***!'”