Oh no, poor Davina McCall.

[user876477]

She does so much to promote women’s health issues. So sad to hear she has a brain tumour. It shows that you really never know what is around the corner. It sounds like it’s operable and as positive as it can be in the circumstances but I’m really sad for her.

no real point to the post I know but..

It's not fucking top trumps.

Saying it’s not as bad as a different type of tumour, as a denigration, is like saying your broken ankle doesn’t require painkillers because you haven’t broken your whole leg.

What the hell is wrong with some people?!

My friend's Dad died of a benign brain tumour!

It was too deep in his brain for them to operate and he eventually died of all the horrific things that his body started suffering because his brain couldn't control it.

Davina is having an operation where they have to remove a portion of her skull to operate. It's hardly a paper cut is it??

Wishing Davina a safe, successful Op and recovery.

Many specialists do not call them 'benign' tumours any more, because they can have non-benign effects. They call them 'low grade' tumours. Low grade (as opposed to say a high grade that might kill you in a year) can still be problematic, they can grow very large and have to be removed multiple times, they can press on other parts of the brain, and in some cases low grade ones turn into high grade ones over time and then they are terminal.

With some low grade ones, they are very limited in spread and can fairly easily be removed, although all brain surgery is risky. Some you can watch and wait. Some need resectioning. Some are terminal.

There's nothing relaxing about having a brain tumour, benign or not.

Yes there was a doctor (a real one) on the news this morning who said they should stop using the word 'benign', because it can give people a false sense of relief, and stop them understanding the seriousness.

My sister's brain tumour was benign. Still killed her - after she lost mental capacity, loss of mobility, and suffered many seizures every day.

For goodness sake, I’m a doctor. I would take a benign tumour over GBM any day

Most people would take pretty much anything over GBM which is often fatal within one/two years max. And pretty grim along the way.

Pretty much everything is better than that!

I also have two friends who had tumours removed, one had PTSD after a complete lack of support afterwards, she did not feel 'right' psychologically for a very long time. Brain surgery causes brain injury, that is never to be trivialised.

Benign tumours can still cause major health issues though.

It's a colloid cyst, not a tumour. But yes, any kind of growth in the brain can cause local tissue damage that can potentially be very serious: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470314/.

We had a student a few years ago who had one. It presented initially as severe difficulty in staying awake. They required surgery with several months' convalescence.

That’s awful. I’m an allied health professional and I remember during training meeting someone with a “ benign” tumour who was learning to walk again. She wasn’t working anymore and struggled to speak. I remember thinking how inappropriate the word “ benign” was.

Imagine having the misfortune to meet a doctor whose attitude is "Chin up luv, at least it's not a GBM" 🤦‍♀️

Thankfully it's extremely unlikely outside of the internet 'doctors'.

@OllyBJolly I'm so sorry to hear that because I know how terrible this is to see, I hope that you can remember the times you shared together before that.

Some low grade tumours indeed aren't that drastic- some are very small and in a limited place, but they still require surgery which is always a risk and especially so in the brain.

Read anything by Henry Marsh, the wonderful neurosurgeon for his regrets about surgeries that didn't go right, even though he can't be a perfect surgeon 100% of the time; doing brain surgery IS brain surgery, because there is no right amount to remove and the risk of damage is high in that part of the body.

Weird post @Flo22

She's just had brain surgery which is incredibly high risk, and benign brain tumours can cause life altering symptoms if left untreated (eg seizures, balance problems, issues with speech and swallowing).

A relative had one and it was huge and causing her a lot of problems by the time it was diagnosed. But, it was removed and she made a slow but full recovery and is now in healthy old age 30 years on. It was definitely a major and risky op and life-threatening condition though. I hope all goes well for Davina.

Why on earth are people being competitive and combative on this thread? Of course it's a difficult and scary thing to go through. Other people being in worse health situations doesn't change that. I wish her well.

MN threads are really weird sometimes.

You’re right. They are weird sometimes! How on earth can anyone be a twat on a thread about brain surgery?

I was sorry to hear this today too , love Davina on tv. She always seems so genuine.
How did she get diagnosed , does it say anywhere ? If she had symptoms etc ?

Davina seems very genuine and lovely and I like the work she's done highlighting health issues. Hoping she has a safe, successful operation and full recovery.

On her IG, she explains she was offered a scan by a medical company so she took them up on it and it was discovered then. So a complete surprise.

In a video on Instagram, she said: “I’m posting this. It will be Friday morning, and I’m doing it because 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 going to ace, but it turned out I had a benign brain tumour called a colloid cyst, which is very rare, three in a million.

Oh that’s fine then, form a queue because everyone will want one!

My dad died from a non-cancerous brain tumour (acoustic neuroma). It doesn’t have to be cancerous to be harmful to your health.

So sorry you lost your mum 😘

DS1 (27) has a Glioblastoma the only symptom he has ever had was at the beginning which led the dr's to finding a lesion on the brain was ONE seizure. He has had two craniotomies since June 2022.

I have a good friend who had a benign tumour removed 2021. She has a yearly MRI and gets scanxiety coming up to the date. She suffers now with brain fog.

People really need to be educated with regards to the seriousness of ALL brain tumours.

My friend had a benign brain tumour.

After losing her short term memory and then her sight, she died.

So why don't you calm down?

IMO she’s very brave to discuss it in public. I wish her well.