DAVINA McCall has revealed she has been quietly battling breast cancer – almost a year after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumour.
Posting an emotional video on her Instagram, the Masked Singer star, 58, told fans she found a lump a few weeks ago.
Speaking at a Dine with Davina event yesterday, she explained she made the discovery five weeks ago.
The crowd at the charity bash – hosted at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton, Hampshire – gasped as she shared her shock diagnosis.
It comes almost a year after the mum-of-three underwent emergency surgery to remove a “very rare” brain tumour.
Speaking on stage, Davina told how she was working on the Masked Singer when she spotted a sign reminding her to “check her boobs”.
After feeling the “tiny weeny” lump on several occasions, she then spotted it in the mirror and decided to get it checked.
She continued: “So I went and I got it checked. She (the doctor) was like, ‘No, no, you’re fine. You had a mammogram in August. It’ll be fine’.
“And I thought, oh, I’ll be fine. That’s great. But then she said, ‘Oh, well, if it is anything, we’ll do a little biopsy’.
“‘But if it is anything, it’s so small, you’ve got it early’. Anyway, I got the result back a few days ago. It was four millimetres, which is minute.
“There’s probably a few people in here that have had breast cancer. Four millimetres is very small and they take a bit of extra from the outside.
“They call them the margins, the margins were all clear. And they got all of it. I didn’t have to have any lymph nodes taken and I’m very lucky.”
Davina explained she will not undergo chemotherapy, but will be required to have five days of radiotherapy as a “insurance policy”.
Earlier this year, Davina said her operation to remove the benign brain tumour was “the best thing to ever happen to me”.
She admitted spiralling into denial after it was discovered by chance last year, but was spurred into action by surgeons.
Breaking down in tears at Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place Festival, Davina revealed doctors told her she would die if she didn’t act quickly.
She said: “I needed someone to tell me what to do, and my American doctor told me I should undergo surgery to have the tumour cut out.
“When I got the phone call, although it was a hard one to hear, I needed it.
“But after the operation, I was aware of a noise in my head, and they were thoughts. I realised I did not have that before.
“Now I wake up and wonder why the grass is green, and now I think of the most random things.
“I am not afraid of dying anymore. It was the biggest journey of my life. It was an amazing time.”
Davina has since started her Begin Again podcast in an attempt to help others on their deathbed.
The show is dedicated to empowering people to embrace midlife as their most transformative era yet.
The Long Lost Family host initially broke the news to her followers in a heartwrenching video on Instagram.
Davina had asked for prayers before having the operation to get the 14mm benign tumour – called a colloid cyst – removed.
She said: “A few months ago, I did a menopause talk for a company and they offered me a health scan in return, which I thought I was gonna ace.
“But it turned out I had a benign brain tumour called a colloid cyst which is very rare. Three in a million. So I slightly put my head in the sand.”
Davina explained she got a second opinion and saw “quite a few” neurosurgeons before getting the op.
She added: “I got lots of opinions and I realised that I have to get it taken out.
“It’s big for the space. It fills the space. It’s 14mm wide and it needs to come out, because if it grows, it would be bad.
“So I’m having it removed via a craniotomy. They go through the top of my head here and through the two halves of my brain to the middle…
“Get the cyst, take it out, empty it, take it out and Bob’s your uncle.”
Davina’s partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, appeared in the video alongside her.
He said he would update everyone on her progress while she took some time away from social media.
