Davina McCall says she initially resisted health check that uncovered rare brain tumour

Davina McCall has said she initially resisted a health check that led to the discovery of a "very rare" brain tumour, telling BBC Woman's Hour that she thought she did not need a scan because she felt "the best" she had in years.

The 57-year-old presenter said the check was gifted to her after she gave a menopause talk for a company. She recalled hesitating, saying, "I don't need a health check, I'm Davina. I'm healthy, I'm fitness lady, that's what I'm known for. I felt fantastic, I felt the best I've felt in years." She said the package included what she described as a "Dexter scan" and a mole map, which she accepted because she had previously used sunbeds.

McCall said the scan flagged a colloid cyst, which doctors described as "benign." She stressed the importance of not equating "benign" with harmless, saying, "I just want to say to anybody listening, that knows anyone with a benign brain tumour, benign does not mean fine. That's a really important thing to say because benign cysts can be devastating. They can be inoperable, they can kill you. Just because it's not cancerous doesn't mean it's not deadly." Medical accounts describe colloid cysts as rare; McCall said the one found in her was thought to affect three in a million people.

She underwent surgery to remove the cyst in November 2024. In April, McCall said a "final MRI" showed the cyst was "not coming back." The presenter has publicly discussed the episode since, including in a Channel 4 documentary series that followed aspects of her health journey.

McCall also explained why she became emotional last year when she received the Special Recognition prize at the National Television Awards. She said that when she accepted the award she already knew about the tumour and that surgery was scheduled six weeks later. "Everybody else knew why it meant so much to me, it just meant the world to me because I wasn't sure where I was going to be six weeks later," she told The Mirror.

The Special Recognition award cited McCall's near three-decade career on screen and featured tributes from colleagues. Organisers noted her recent documentary work among the reasons for the honour.

Medical specialists caution that colloid cysts, while not cancerous, can cause serious problems if they obstruct cerebrospinal fluid flow or grow in critical locations. Treatment depends on size, symptoms and surgical accessibility; some cysts can be monitored, while others require removal to reduce the risk of complications.

McCall's account highlighted the role of opportunistic health checks in detecting conditions that may not produce obvious symptoms. She urged people not to dismiss scans or checks, noting her own reluctance before the diagnosis and the outcome that followed.