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..

What an incredibly insensitive comment!

It's sad, she's had a difficult life 😔 I wish her the best.

Means little, my son has a "benign" tumour in his brain, he's been left visually impaired and with learning difficulties. Children we know with the same tumour have been been left blind, or have died.

Benign doesn't really mean much in the brain

Agree. @Flo22 behave yourself will you?! And be a little bit more considerate.

@housethatbuiltme
Nope the two I know of where in their 30s.

Which is why I clearly said not ALL!! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Also, Davinia has a colloid cyst which have a very low mortality rate compared with other types of brain tumour. I still wouldn't want one and I'm am not trying to minimise what she is facing but I don't think all the talk of people dying from benign brain tumours is that helpful.

Very sad for her. Brain surgery is a terrifying thing to have to go through.

surprised at some of the ridiculously ignorant comments on here today.

There's a career ill chosen.

My friend was early 40s when diagnosed with a brain tumour. After 2 craniotomies to try and remove as much of it as possible she died at 44.

During the first operation she was woken on the operating table so they could removing a bit of the tumour where it met healthy brain and then check they hadn't damaged any of the brain tissue and limited her functioning. Then they would remove a bit more of the tumour and check again. The surgery took hours and hours as they knew any bits left behind would keep growing but they didn't want to give her a brain injury.

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.

@WonderfulUsername , I totally agree. My sons hospital don't use benign as it gives false hope. His eye specialist, from a diff hospital, who gave us the news, pretty much laughed it off as meaning nothing (Knob), so we did too. Such a shock to then get referred to paed oncology and be sat there being given the stats. 10 years down the line, I'd love to say that tumour had bugger all impact on his, as it really has

It is worrying, my neighbour had brain surgery to remove a benign tumour a few years ago, maybe the year before lockdown or the year before that. She was late 60s at the time but after the op, she had a lot of problems. There was some damage to nerves or something (I don't know the details) and she had no feeling down one side of her body. Lots of therapy, both mind and body, over the years and now she's walking with sticks, very disabled and her personality is different too.

Hopefully that won't happen to Davina and all will be well but there are always risks.

This, and come back to us when you've had it done

Nope. DSis was 49.

Brain tumours are responsible for the greatest number of cancer deaths for people under 40. (and only gets 2% of cancer research funding - I'm told because of poor prognosis)

@UnrealRita I have seen that poster on other threads showing little empathy for people who don't have a serious enough diagnosis

@BellaVita I'm wishing your son all the good stuff in the world, I'm so sorry he's gone through such an ordeal and you too. Thank you for your kindness about mum. Her symptoms were nausea and exhaustion, the GP said it was a virus. I pushed for hospital tests, I told the consultant I thought it might be neurological, he kind of rolled his eyes, but they scanned, and that was that. There's so little we know isn't there? Sending you all the best 🧡

@Choux
My friend was early 40s when diagnosed with a brain tumour. After 2 craniotomies to try and remove as much of it as possible she died at 44.

During the first operation she was woken on the operating table so they could removing a bit of the tumour where it met healthy brain and then check they hadn't damaged any of the brain tissue and limited her functioning. Then they would remove a bit more of the tumour and check again. The surgery took hours and hours as they knew any bits left behind would keep growing but they didn't want to give her a brain injury.

I'm so sorry for your loss. She was so young too. 💐

Again, I don't have the stats but the chances of dying from a colloid cyst is very small, particularly as Divinia was asymptomatic. It's typically but not always removed by endoscopic surgery. You can be out of hospital in a day or so and back to work within a couple of months. It's still BAD and must be extremely worrying but I don't think the tone of some of the replies on this thread are helpful.

I hope she isn't reading this thread. It isn't exactly positive.

Thanks @Hualalai yes she was young and lovely and it was so unfair but I re read your post after adding my reply and saw you had mentioned 'benign tumours'. My friend's tumour wasn't benign - it was grade 3 cancer at diagnosis. Not a colloid cyst.

I don't think she's going to be reading Mumsnet threads about her tumour.

And she's also a grown-up who's had her fair share if grim, dark times so I think she has the grit needed to not just need positivity.

I think people are talking about their relatives with benign tumours because others were saying that they are 'benign' as in non-harmful.

It's like saying don't worry you have breast cancer, most people survive it (true), or don't worry you've got a huge benign cyst in your womb, you can have a hysterectomy (true).

Things with uncertain outcomes which raise other risks (even 'just' memory loss, or 'just' personality change) are difficult to handle when you have to live with them, the uncertainty of the outcomes makes it stressful, if you knew you were going to be be one of the lucky ones for definite, that would be great, but you don't and you also have to endure surgery etc. Two months off for a brain surgery is not a trivial intervention even if it's not life-threatening.

So good to see all the people who would simply sail through brain surgery without a care in the world 🙄.

Another idiot 🙄
My dh's "benign" brain tumour is a damn site more than an inconvenience ffs!

Good that you know so much.

It isn't about not just needing positivity if you read this thread as it seems about 90% negativity. You also don't know who else might be reading this who has just had a similar diagnosis for themself or a loved one and why would people feel the need to go on and on and on about death and paralysis etc. Can't we just wish her well?

I think posters only started mentioning that kind of thing when people were talking like it was nothing at all.

I just saw this. I was initally pleased it wasn't cancer, but reading the replies here it seems even benign tumours and the subsequent surgery can be hard to manage. Wishing Davina well.