Davina McCall shares health update after she’s ‘punched in the face’ by double cancer diagnosis
The presenter spoke about discovering she had a brain tumour and then breast cancer as she shared a new health update
Davina McCall(Image: Heart Radio Handout)
Davina McCall has told how she felt like she had been ‘punched in the face by the universe’ after discovering she had a brain tumour and then breast cancer, as she shared a new health update
Last April, the TV presenter told how her ‘final MRI’ had shown a colloid cyst, which she had removed in November 2024, is ‘not coming back’, after it was found when she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work.
According to the NHS, non-cancerous brain tumours are more common in people over the age of 50, and symptoms include headaches, vision problems and drowsiness, and some can be “difficult to remove without damaging surrounding tissue”.
It was then late last year that the former Big Brother host underwent surgery to treat breast cancer. Davina’s diagnosis arrived around a year after she had a separate operation to remove the benign brain tumour.
At the time, she shared how she had postponed a mammogram check-up prior to finding a ‘lump’ in her breast, and now the TV presenter is urging anyone with similar concerns to “get checked”. Posting a video message to Instagram, she revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had already undergone surgery to have a “lump” removed.
On Friday morning (March 27), Davina joined Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden, whereDavina and Jamie talked about their recent cancer journeys where Davina described it feeling like being “punched in the face by the universe” after her breast cancer diagnosis.
Davina was speaking to Jamie on Heart Breakfast(Image: Heart Radio Handout)
Davina said: “We’ve been on quite a journey you and me, when I, when I got you in that grip where it hurt your throat and you found out it was cancer, I carried that burden where I thought I’d hurt you for quite a long time,” to which Jamie, who announced he is “cancer free” in January 2025, following treatment for stage 1 laryngeal cancer (voice box), replied: “No! As I always said, if you hadn’t have done that, I never would have known.”
Davina continued: “It was just quite a difficult year and in October interestingly two years almost to the month where I found out I had a brain tumour, I got breast cancer, and it felt like being punched in the face by the universe, I just thought what, I was just about beginning to feel like myself again, and I had a mammogram in the August and this was the October, and I found a lump. So just don’t think, ‘Oh I had a mammogram recently, it can’t be that’. It could be. So just check, if you’ve got something, go get it looked at. It takes seconds.”
Jamie admitted: “I still get the panic,” as Davina said: “The fear. Scanxiety they call it.” Jamie added: “Scanxiety, which I had recently, because I’d convinced myself it had come back.” Davina then revealed: “I had a check yesterday, I also got scanxiety, and they were very pleased to tell me there was nothing there.”
Listen to Heart Breakfast with Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden weekdays from 06:30 – 10:00 and on Global Player
