Woman with brain tumour says it started with one sign as she praises Davina McCall for helping raise awareness
A woman who was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour has praised Davina McCall for helping to spread awareness, and spoken about the early warning sign she had.
The TV presenter recently asked fans to 'pray' for her as she explained she was about to undergo surgery after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
The tumour, a benign colloid cyst, was found during a scan and the surgery went well as her partner, Michael Douglas (not that one), later posted on her social media accounts that Davina was 'out of surgery' and it had all been 'textbook'.
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A woman who had a similar diagnosis said it was the 'scariest thing I ever had to face', as 27-year-old spoke about being told she had a rare, aggressive and malignant tumour in her brain.
Kimberley Baggley had been diagnosed with a grade 3 astrocytoma in June 2023 and underwent a craniotomy, the same procedure McCall just had.
She explained that she started suffering from a migraine at work to the point that she was sent home, and then started feeling a tingling pain in her face.
The 27-year-old made several visits to A&E to seek treatment for this and each time she was sent away with painkillers, but after she spent a week unwell in bed, her husband and son came home to find her unconscious after having had a seizure.
She was then given MRI and CT scans at Royal Stoke University Hospital, Stoke-on-Trent which found the rare brain tumour and soon she underwent a craniotomy, which is where a part of the skull is removed so that surgery can be performed on the brain.
The surgery removed 95 percent of the tumour, but Kimberley has since had to undergo 33 rounds of radiotherapy and 10 rounds of chemotherapy, with more of the latter treatment to come.
The 27-year-old mum praised Davina for raising awareness around brain tumours, but lamented the lack of information for people who 'need to go back-and-forth to their GP'.
She said that the TV presenter 'has been very, very lucky' after being 'offered a private scan'.
Indeed, McCall said that she'd been 'offered a health scan' after she 'did a menopause talk for a company', which revealed that she had a rare tumour.
"Normal people, like me, can't afford that," Kimberley said as she gave people advice for her situation.
"If I could get one piece of information out there to 'normal people', it would be: 'stay confident, and know about tumours'.
"Research tumours, go to the doctors and say: 'I'm not giving up'.
"I’d like to encourage Davina to stay positive and cheerful - keep that wonderful sense of humour, remember you’re a human, not a statistic."
The 27-year-old also said that McCall's actions were 'going to bring more light to brain tumours', saying that although her first thought when she heard was how awful it was, 'the word is out there' and there are more explanations being put in front of the public.
Having gone through treatment for about a year-and-a-half, Kimberley said she was 'finally' starting to feel better and is eager to 'get back to the old me'.
Joe Harker