Davina McCall reveals she has undergone surgery for breast cancer | Davina McCall
Davina McCall has revealed she had surgery for breast cancer and urged others to “get checked out”.
In a video posted to Instagram, the presenter said she was “very angry” when she learned about the cancer, but felt “much more positive” after a lumpectomy.
McCall said she discovered a lump a few weeks ago that was “coming and going”, and was pushed to get it checked after seeing posters urging women to “check their breasts” while working on ITV’s Lorraine.
She said: “I had breast cancer. I found a lump a few weeks ago. It came and went, but then I was working on The Masked Singer and Lorraine, the TV show, and Lorraine Kelly had put signs on the back of all the doors saying ‘check your boobs’ and every time I went to pee I did that.
“It was always there, and then one morning I saw myself in the mirror and thought, ‘I’m going to get this looked at.’
“I did a biopsy. I found out it was indeed breast cancer and had it removed with a lumpectomy almost three weeks ago.”
McCall added: “It was very, very small, so I got it very, very early, which is incredibly lucky. But I’m so relieved to have had it removed and to know that it hasn’t spread.
“My lymph nodes were clear, none were removed and all I’m going to do now is get five days of radiotherapy in January, as a sort of insurance policy.”
In his message, McCall, 58, paid tribute to medical staff, his family and his partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas.
She said: “I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone at the Royal Marsden [hospital] …all the nurses, doctors who helped me, thank you for your support.
“Thank you to my family, to my brilliant children, and a special thank you to Michael. That means a lot. I was really angry when I found out, but I’ve put that behind me and I’m in a much more positive place now.”
She added, “I think my message is: Get checked if you’re worried, get checked regularly. If you need to get a mammogram, get it. And I have dense breasts, and I had a mammogram in August, and I put off the ultrasound. I just haven’t found the time to do it. Don’t do that.”
Last November, the presenter had surgery for a “very rare” tumor. The benign brain tumor, known as a colloid cyst, was discovered after she was offered a health check as part of her menopause advocacy work.
In a tearful interview earlier this year, McCall said the craniotomy, which involved the removal of part of her skull to extract the tumor, was “the hardest thing” she had endured. In April, she said her benign brain tumor was “not coming back.”
The former Big Brother host has long campaigned for women’s health issues and has presented documentaries on contraception and the menopause. Her bestselling book Menopausing, co-written with Dr Naomi Potter, won Book of the Year at the 2023 British Book Awards.
