TV star Davina McCall has made an “enormous leap forward” in treatment for a brain tumour, her husband has said.
The 57-year-old former Big Brother presenter announced last week that a “very rare” benign brain tumour, known as a colloid cyst, had been found after she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work.
In a post on her Instagram account on Monday, McCall’s husband Michael Douglas said she had left the intensive care unit where she had been placed “as a precaution” after her surgery was completed, and added she was “loving awareness”.
Massive relief to see some light breaking through. Thanks for all the good vibes coming in from all angles, up and up
He said: “Mega progress these last 24 hours.
“Massive relief to see some light breaking through. Thanks for all the good vibes coming in from all angles, up and up.
“Thanks so much to all the well wishers. She really has made an enormous leap forward in the last 24 hours.
“She is out of ICU, she is loving awareness, thank you Michael.”
In a post on Friday, Mr Douglas confirmed the surgery had been completed, describing it as “textbook”, but added that McCall was feeling “utterly exhausted”.
A video posted to the Instagram account shows McCall saying it was a “big” tumour, 14mm wide, adding: “It needs to come out, because if it grows, it would be bad.”
Mr Douglas added that she will be “off grid for a bit” while she recovers.
According to the NHS, non-cancerous brain tumours are more common in people over the age of 50, and symptoms include headaches, blackouts, behavioural changes and loss of consciousness.
The former Big Brother host, who presents ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad, has long advocated on women’s health issues, and presented documentaries on contraception and the menopause.
Last year, she was made an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting, and in 2022 she released a book, Menopausing: The Positive Roadmap To Your Second Spring, with the aim of ending “the shame and horrific misinformation surrounding menopause”.
The same year, she fronted Channel 4 documentary Davina McCall: Sex, Mind And The Menopause, and told the BBC that perimenopausal symptoms caused her difficulties with multi-tasking, and she considered she might have had a brain tumour or Alzheimer’s disease at the time, as her father Andrew suffers from the latter.
The TV star, who started going through perimenopause at 44, also said the symptoms reminded her of when she was a drug addict in her 20s as she was waking up soaked in sweat.
She has also spoken about taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to alleviate some of the symptoms, telling ITV’s Loose Women: “The health benefits for me way outweighed the negatives. I’ve got dementia running in my family, it massively reduces that, reduces diabetes and it reduces the risk of heart disease by 50%.”
Earlier this year, the presenter was honoured with the special recognition award at the National Television Awards and received an honorary degree from Newcastle University for championing women’s health.
McCall has also raised money for Cancer Research UK by running the Race For Life in honour of her late sister Caroline Baday, who died from lung cancer in 2012 at the age of 50.
McCall made her name on Big Brother between 2000 and 2010 during its Channel 4 run, and has gone on to co-present BBC Comic Relief and Sport Relief, Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer, The Million Pound Drop and Long Lost Family, and voiced a robot version of herself in Doctor Who.
She regularly posts about exercising and health products and has released numerous fitness DVDs.
