Davina McCall has revealed she has undergone surgery for breast cancer and urged others to “get checked”.
In a video posted to Instagram, the presenter said she was “very angry” when she found out about the cancer, but felt in a “much more positive place” after a lumpectomy.
McCall said she found a lump a few weeks ago that “came and went”, and was driven to get it checked after seeing posters urging women to “check your breasts” while working on ITV’s Lorraine show.
She said: “I have 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 backs of all the doors saying ‘check your breasts’ and every time I went for a wee I did that.
“It was still there, and then one morning I saw myself in the mirror and thought: ‘I’m going to get that looked at.’
“I had a biopsy. I found out it was indeed breast cancer and I had it taken out in a lumpectomy nearly three weeks ago.”
McCall added: “It was very, very small, so I got it very, very early, which is incredibly lucky. But I am so relieved to have had it removed and to know that it hasn’t spread.
“My lymph nodes were clear, I didn’t have any removed, and all I’m going to do now is have five days of radiotherapy in January as kind of an insurance policy.”
In her post, McCall, 58, paid tribute to medical staff, her family and her partner, the hairdresser Michael Douglas.
She said: “I just want to say a massive thank you to everybody at the Royal Marsden [hospital] … all the nurses, doctors who have helped me, thank you for your support.
“Thanks to my family, to my brilliant kids, and an extra special thanks to Michael. It’s been a lot. I was very angry when I found out, but I let go of that and I feel in a much more positive place now.”
She added: “I think my message is, get checked if you’re worried, check yourself regularly. If you are due a mammogram, then get it done. And I have dense breasts, and I had a mammogram in August, and I was postponing the ultrasound. I just couldn’t find time to do it. Don’t do that.”
Last November, the presenter had surgery for a “very rare” tumour. The benign brain tumour, known as a colloid cyst, was found after she was offered a health checkup as part of her menopause advocacy work.
In a tearful interview earlier this year, McCall said the craniotomy, which entailed removing a portion of her skull to extract the tumour, was “the hardest thing” she had endured. In April, she said her benign brain tumour was “not coming back”.
The former Big Brother host has long advocated on women’s health issues and has presented documentaries on contraception and menopause. Her bestselling book Menopausing, co-written with Dr Naomi Potter, won the British Book Awards 2023 overall book of the year.
