Nicki Chapman faced "the most frightening experience of her life" after being diagnosed with a brain tumour the size of a golf ball in 2019. The Escape to the Country star opened up about the ordeal in her new memoir, So Tell Me What You Want, in which she reflects on the surgery she underwent to remove part of the non-cancerous but life-threatening tumour.
"Receiving that news was, without doubt, the most shocking and frightening experience of my life - even worse than being chased by an elephant on safari with the Spice Girls," wrote the 57-year-old, who made a name for herself as a top publicist and PR executive in the Nineties.
"When they took the tumour out, it didn't all come out, and the bit that was left has disappeared, which is not rare," explained the star, who returns for scans every 18 months.
"The only thing it really made me do is have a greater sense of gratitude," said Nicki, who is an ambassador for the Brain Tumour Charity. "I had a brain tumour. I didn't have brain cancer, but my surgeon and the NHS had that conversation with me. I made my will. You know, nothing is given and it does give you an appreciation."
© Naked West/FremantleNicki also spoke about the experience in a recent interview with The Times. "I have had an amazing life and, once the bombshell of the tumour dropped, I thought, I don't want to give this life up," said the publicist turned TV presenter. "But if this is it? Well — how lucky have I been? And that sounds so glossy, but I was born with the glass half-full. I found a strength to deal with it. It was either take me now or let me live."
Nicki, who returned to work six weeks after her surgery, doesn't like to talk about her health ordeal. "It makes me cry," she said.
© Photo: Getty ImagesIt all began back in May 2019 when the TV star began experiencing a loss of vision and slurred speech while recovering from a knee operation. "My symptoms were very sudden, over 24 hours," she told the Brain Tumours Charity in 2020. "Initially doctors thought I'd had a stroke but scans revealed a golf-ball-sized meningioma.
"It's the initial shock of diagnosis and then the shock when you tell people that's even more distressing. It's like a slap. When you have to ring people – your family – and tell them; it's just hideous," she explained.
© Photo: Getty ImagesThankfully, her husband, music producer Dave Shackleton, was by her side throughout the process. "He's been amazing. He's much stronger than I thought he was going to be," Nicki said of her other half, who she wed in 1999. "In a way, it's harder for those close to you."
Over four years after her diagnosis, Nicki is determined not to let her tumour "define her" and revealed her decision to put it in a metaphorical "filing cabinet". "You do this with a lot of things in life — it will always be there, but I don't need to keep opening it," she told The Times.
