Davina McCall will have everlasting bond with brain surgeon after life-saving operation

Davina McCall underwent complex surgery to remove a cyst on her brain in November last year, after a routine body scan during filming of a menopause documentary discovered the cyst

TV star Davina McCall vows to be friends for life with the surgeon who operated on her brain and saved her life last year.

The 57-year-old TV star underwent the complex five-hour operation in November last year, after a cyst was discovered during a routine body scan. While filming her documentary on the menopause, Davina was offered the scan and despite initially refusing, she eventually accepted, and the benign tumour on her brain was found by doctors in August 2023.

She admitted in a new interview that she ignored the diagnosis the cyst was benign, and wasn’t life-threatening. “I just heard the word ‘benign’ and thought, ‘Oh, that’s OK,’” she explained. More than 12 months later, she finally decided to have the surgery, and was operated on by consultant neurosurgeon, Kevin O’Neill in London. Now, the former Big Brother host has declared Kevin will be her friend for life after the five-hour operation.

Speaking to The Times, Davina revealed she had prepared for her death, even though the risk of dying during the operation was highly unlikely, and she heaped praise on Kevin, who she met with for the first time since the surgery. “We’re going to be friends for the rest of our lives,” she excitedly told him. “We are going to go out to dinner with our partners! We are going to do it!”

Davina, who has three grown up children - Holly, Tilly and Chester - with ex-husband Matthew Robertson, has a special bond with the neurosurgeon, and Kevin admitted he and the TV presenter have an “emotional connection”. He said of the mum-of-three: “Davina is a special person.” Later in the interview, she heartbreakingly recalled the conversation she had with Kevin before the surgery.

“I said to him, ‘You do whatever you need to do. I put all my faith in you.’ 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,” she explained.

Now, Davina has made a full recovery, and revealed some of her symptoms, which she attributed to the menopause before the cyst was discovered, have gone, leaving her feeling more alert and active just days after the op. ”I’d noticed that I wasn’t thinking so much. A week after the operation, it was like, ‘Wow. My mind feels more active,” Davina shared.

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