The sparkle and warmth the nation has come to love about Britain’s favourite astrologer was gone.
Instead, Russell Grant sat silently, almost paralysed with fear and in a state of denial about the action he needed to take to deal with a growing tumour.
Medics, friends and family were encouraging him to go ahead with surgery to get rid of the pituitary gland tumour in his brain.
“But I was in denial,” says Russell, 72, the star of Strictly and the Mirror’s own astrologer. “I was so scared.
“Then one day I had a Zoom call with my neurosurgeon Professor Omar Pathmanaban. He was lovely, so reassuring.
“But what topped it off was he then said, ‘It would be an honour and a privilege to take away your tumour…when I was a kid my mother and I used to watch you every morning on breakfast telly. It made me late for school.’”
Russell is full of gratitude for all the medics who helped him through his six hour operation last November.
This week he revealed his battle in a tweet to mark Brain Tumour Awareness Month. Today he talks to the Mirror about the ordeal - and how in December 2019 the astrological signs told him serious challenges lay ahead.
Russell says: “I was giving a lecture at the Northern Lights astrological society in Blackpool. At the end I said, and I have nearly 200 witnesses, ‘The world has some serious challenges coming up over the next three to four years.
“The power of the slow moving planets, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto means it won’t just be for the world but for each individual. The weak points of ourselves are going to be seriously challenged.’”
Russell thought for himself it might mean problems with his hip, knee or back which had been troublesome.
But within a week his beloved mother had a stroke. Covid was coming and unbeknown to him he was developing a tumour. After her stroke and with signs of dementia, his mum moved into a care home near the family home not far from Watford.
With the nation in lockdown for much of 2020 he was barely able to leave his home in Wales to visit her. He says: “I spoke to her on the phone twice a day and with the dementia I don’t think it occurred to her I couldn’t get to see her. She was sensational, like Ethel Merman. The hostess with the mostess.”
On January 13, 2021 Russell’s mother passed away at 93. But with England and Wales in another lockdown he was unable to attend the funeral and had to say farewell over Zoom.
Russell says: “I went into a great deal of grieving. It was terrible. I felt guilty, I felt I had let her down, even though I’d been looking after her since the 1970s, but I wasn’t there at the end.”
Over the next six months Russell put sudden weight loss down to grief.
Then he began suffering extreme burning sensations all over his body. He weighed himself and found he had lost six stone, dropping from 21st to 15st.
In January last year, he went to his GP. Blood tests showed his body had none of the stress hormone cortisone and he was prescribed hydrocortisone tablets.
Russell adds: “I began to panic. They wanted me to go for an MRI scan but I didn’t want to face it.”
Doctors feared Russell had a brain tumour, like his dad 20 years earlier. But until he agreed to a scan they were unable to diagnose it. He finally had one.
It revealed the tumour was benign but was pressing on his optic nerve and without surgery he would lose his sight.
But Russell would need a major operation conducted by two surgeons, one a brain specialist and the other an Ear, Nose and Throat expert.
He adds: “Thinking back to my 2019 lecture I thought, ‘Well, these planets haven’t f*****g let me down.’”
Russell turned for advice to his old showbiz pal, singer Russell Watson, who had the same operation in 2006.
He says: “I sent him a text and told him what was happening. He told me, ‘Oh God. Get it out your head NOW.’
“What I wanted to do was run away into the mountains like Heidi.”
Then one day in the quiet Catholic church in Snowdonia where Russell worships he received a sign which gave him the strength he needed.
He explains: “I was sending a prayer up saying, ‘What shall I do?’ And it was like I saw my dad’s face saying, ‘Get it done.’”
Soon after, his schoolboy fan from his morning TV days, now a leading brain surgeon, agreed to do the surgery.
But Russell still had one unusual request. He says: “I said to Professor Pathmanaban, ‘Can I choose the date by astrology when you operate.’ He replied: ‘Of course, I would have expected nothing less.’
“So I looked at my astrology charts for a day which would bring optimism and positivity and came up with November 24th. It was a full moon. All we really needed was a Sagittarian on the medical team and it would be fine.”
Days before the operation Russell received a call from one of his closest friends, Hi De Hi actress Ruth Madoc. He says: “We chatted. At the end I said, ‘Do take care Ruth, we have some very heavy aspects around us.’ And she died a couple of weeks later.”
Russell was in theatre from 2.15pm until 8.15pm as the surgeons removed his tumour through his nose.
He is overwhelmed by the NHS care he has received – and incandescent at how staff are being treated by the Tories. He adds: “How dare they not give them a raise?” Russell has healed well. But it has made him reassess life.
He says: “It’s reminded me every day is precious and every day I need to do something that is important, not just for me but for the wider world.”
Russell spends his time working on his daily stars column but also writing about history. And he is involved in non-league football.
So are his stars starting to look brighter?
“Not quite yet,” he says. “Things are brighter for me, but they are still not quite right. But they say it will be a six month recovery period.”
Oh yes.. and about that operation being such a success.
“Ah.. I saw my ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr Raj Bhalla for a check up,” he says. “He asked why November 24th had been such an important day. I explained about the positivity and the moon and he said, ‘Oh, I just wondered because it was my birthday.’
“He’s Sagittarius!”
