I wasn't terrified of dying, but I didn't want to leave my kids': Davina McCall on addiction, reality TV and the brain tumour that nearly killed her

"Post-fitting, her friend Dame Lesley Regan, a gynaecologist, suggested that McCall have a health screening at the state-of-the-art women's health clinic where she worked, in exchange for a talk she would give on menopause. To be honest, McCall says, she thought the idea ridiculous. I was like: Honestly, I don't need that. I'm the healthiest woman you've ever met. I don't go to the doctor, I have a good immune system, I eat well.'"

"It's 10 months now since McCall had her brain tumour removed. Although benign, the colloid cyst was huge. If left untreated, it could have eventually killed her. The TV presenter says she's still trying to process everything: how fluky it was that it was spotted; what could have happened if it hadn't been, or if she had refused the op (she almost did); and how her brain has been changed."

"We meet at a studio in London where she's having her photo taken. She arrives wearing a candy floss-coloured shirt, black skort and Ibiza tan. She looks ludicrously fit, like she could knock off a triathlon before breakfast. Today, at 57, McCall's addiction is health and fitness. It used to be booze and heroin. I looked at my life and thought: have I done everything I want to do? And I thought: yeah, I have.' Dress: Claire Mischevani. Earrings: Giovanni Raspini"

McCall underwent a public coil refit and agreed to a health screening at a women's clinic offered by Dame Lesley Regan in exchange for a menopause talk, though she initially dismissed the idea. Ten months after removal of a huge benign colloid cyst from her brain, she is still processing how close she came to death and how the operation changed her brain; she almost refused the surgery. At 57 she is devoted to health and fitness, having shifted from earlier addictions to alcohol and heroin and reassessed her priorities.

Read at www.theguardian.com