Davina McCall announces she is undergoing surgery for brain tumour

The tumour is incredibly rare

In a video on Instagram, the Masked Singer judge revealed she was having an operation to remove a 14mm benign brain tumour.

McCall explained the tumour - called a colloid cyst, which only affects three in every million people - was discovered when she was offered a free health check after doing a menopause talk for company.

She explained the procedure that doctors would carry out to remove the tumour, and that she would be in hospital for nine days.

The 57-year-old told followers: "I was offered a health scan which I thought I was going to ace but it turned out I had benign brain tumour which is very rare, 'three in a million'. I put my head in the sand for a while. It's 14mm wide and it needs to come out because if it grows it would be bad. I'm having it removed."

She urged fans to "say a prayer for me" but added she was "in good spirits," words which were echoed by her boyfriend Michael Douglas.

Writing in the caption of the post, Douglas wrote: "Hey everyone. Michael here. @davinamccall will be 'off grid' for a bit while she recovers from this brain operation. She is in great shape and in very good hands.

"I’ll I do the odd update from her account here for anyone interested. I’m sure she’ll read all the comments when she’s able to so feel free to send love. The support of people is amazingly powerful. Have a great day everyone."

The NHS describes a benign brain tumour as a "mass of cells that grows relatively slowly in the brain."

They continue: "Non-cancerous brain tumours tend to stay in one place and do not spread. It will not usually come back if all of the tumour can be safely removed during surgery.

"If the tumour cannot be completely removed, there's a risk it could grow back. In this case it'll be closely monitored using scans or treated with radiotherapy."