Nicki Chapman has revealed she can’t talk about her brain tumour ordeal without crying.
The 57-year-old presenter has revealed in a moving new interview that she keeps memories of her health problems in a mental “filing cabinet” so she can manage her feelings.
The former Pop Idol judge was diagnosed with a non-malignant brain tumor in 2019. The tumor grew to the size of a small golf ball and she underwent surgery to remove part of it.
Then, in March 2022, she revealed that she had magically disappeared and recounted how she broke down upon receiving the news.
She has already told it The times On her ordeal: “It makes me cry. I’ve filed my own tumor away in a filing cabinet. You do that with a lot of things in life: it’s always there, but I don’t need to keep opening it. I won’t let it define me.”
Nicki Chapman has revealed she can’t talk about her brain tumour ordeal without crying
The 57-year-old presenter has revealed in a moving new interview that she keeps memories of her health problems in a mental “filing cabinet” so she can deal with her feelings.
Nicki added: ‘I’ve had an amazing life.And when the bombshell of the tumor hit me, I thought: “I don’t want to give up on this life. But if this is it… how lucky have I been?”
“And that sounds very elegant, but I was born with the glass half full. I found the strength to deal with it. Either accept me now or let me live.”
In 2022 NIcki revealed publicly for the first time that she received the shocking but welcome news that the growth, which she named Bert, disappeared four months earlier.
She told the White Wine Question Time podcast: ‘In October I was having my annual scan with my fantastic specialist doctor, who knows I love him.
‘I regularly tell my husband how much I adore him and the NHS who looked after me and continue to look after me so well.
“He called me and I was in a field, because we do phone appointments now, we don’t do them face to face. He called me to give me my latest tests and I was in a field and the Escape to the Country team had left.”
She continued: ‘I knew they were calling me, so they stepped away and gave me some privacy. And I was just staring at all these pigs.
‘The wonderful doctor called me and said, “The tumor, Nicki, is gone. It’s gone for the moment.”
The former Pop Idol judge was diagnosed with a non-malignant brain tumor in 2019. The tumor grew to the size of a small golf ball and she underwent surgery to remove part of it.
Then, in March 2022, she revealed that she had magically disappeared and recounted how she broke down upon receiving the news.
‘I was sobbing. And he was like, ‘Nicki, Nicki.’ I was like, ‘No, no, no.’ I said, ‘Do we know why?’ He said, ‘No, these things happen.’
‘I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. And they don’t know why. And obviously, I still have to be under surveillance because these things have habits of change.
“That’s why we take advantage of the good things when we can. We always look for victory in every situation. Bert is gone for the moment and I hope that bastard never comes back.”
Nicki also reflected on the first time she received her diagnosis, when her husband told her she seemed “on drugs.”
Nicki explained that she felt relieved to be… She was told she could survive – and was even willing to accept losing the sight in one eye in exchange if necessary – but she still rewrote her will the day before her operation.
Explaining why part of the tumour had to remain like a dark cloud hanging over her, she said: “They had to leave part of it inside because of where it was. It was too dangerous to take it out for some reason.”
‘At the moment it’s gone now. There’s no trace, just scar tissue, so the NHS will continue to monitor me and I’ll happily attend any appointments they ask me to go to.
“But yes, it is life-changing, for sure. I wouldn’t want anyone to go through something like that. Unfortunately, a lot of people are going through it and are going through it, and I know I’m lucky.”
She continued: “Luckily it was benign, but even living with it wasn’t great. What will I look like? How will I be? I made my will the day before the operation.”
‘The first thing I said to my husband was, “Let’s redo the will.” And he was brilliant.
‘I told very few people because it’s a life-changing event. It’s the most important thing. It’s amazing what you accept in life. You find a strength you didn’t know you had. We knew it was something important. They said, “You have a big tumor.” They thought I had had a stroke.
“But it’s living each day without knowing if you’re going to live or not.”
Nicki, who is married to music executive Dave Shackleton, added: ‘We were out and Shack was like, ‘Are you sure you’re OK? You look pretty high.’
“And I said, ‘Shack, they told me I’m going to live. Unless something goes wrong in the operating room, which it might, I’m going to live. I’ll accept partial vision or whatever.'”
‘After my operation everything went in my favour and six weeks later I was already filming.
‘I spoke to my doctor. I went to see him and said, “I’m really looking forward to going back to work. I thought I was going to be sick for more than three months.”
“And he said, ‘Yeah, me too.’ I said, ‘Am I crazy to go back to filming? ‘ I said, ‘They’ll take care of me. ‘ And he said, ‘You know what, if I couldn’t do the surgery for six weeks, I’d go crazy, and I can see the same thing with you. ‘ So I was discharged.
“The only thing I have is that I have a hard time reading now, which is a small price to pay for my health. My concentration is not as good as it used to be. I find it difficult to read books, I don’t know why. Apart from that, I take it every day. I am very grateful.
She has now told The Times of her ordeal: “It brings tears to my eyes. I’ve put my own tumour in a filing cabinet.”
‘The NHS is amazing and I’m going for the win. It’s not going to define me. I’m going to get on with my life.’
“That’s important to me. Everyone deals with things differently, but for me it’s not about Nicki Chapman with a brain tumor, it’s about being myself.”
Nicki first realised she was ill whilst working on the BBC show Escape to the Country when she went to do a voiceover and couldn’t remember the name of the executive producer, whom she had known for 15 years.
He later said: “I went back and did a photo shoot and I couldn’t see, I did a voiceover and I couldn’t speak, nothing came out. It lasted about five to ten minutes.”