Nicki Chapman has opened up about what she describes as the most frightening experience of her life, reflecting on her brain tumour diagnosis and life-saving surgery as she shares a candid new update.
The Escape to the Country presenter was diagnosed in 2019 with a non-cancerous but life-threatening brain tumour — a meningioma roughly the size of a golf ball — after a sudden onset of alarming symptoms.
Nicki, now 57, has revisited the ordeal in her memoir So Tell Me What You Want, where she recounts the shock of learning she would need urgent surgery to remove part of the tumour.
“Receiving that news was, without doubt, the most shocking and frightening experience of my life,” she writes. “Even worse than being chased by an elephant on safari with the Spice Girls.”
The former music publicist, who became one of the UK’s most recognisable television faces, underwent surgery later that year. Although surgeons were unable to remove the entire tumour, she revealed that the remaining section later disappeared — something doctors told her can happen and is not unusual.
“When they took the tumour out, it didn’t all come out, and the bit that was left has disappeared,” Nicki explained, adding that she now returns for precautionary scans every 18 months.
While she is careful to stress that she did not have brain cancer, Nicki admitted the conversations she had with doctors were stark.
“I had a brain tumour. I didn’t have brain cancer — but my surgeon and the NHS had that conversation with me,” she said. “I made my will. Nothing is given.”
The experience, she says, fundamentally changed her outlook on life.
“The only thing it really made me do is have a greater sense of gratitude,” said Nicki, who is now an ambassador for the Brain Tumour Charity. “It gives you an appreciation for everything.”
She also spoke candidly about the ordeal in a recent interview with The Times, revealing the quiet strength she found after the initial shock.
“I’ve had an amazing life,” she said. “And once the bombshell of the tumour dropped, I thought, I don’t want to give this life up. But if this is it — well, how lucky have I been?”
Despite her resilience, Nicki admits it remains deeply emotional to revisit.
“I don’t really like talking about it,” she said simply. “It makes me cry.”
The health scare began in May 2019 while she was recovering from knee surgery, when she suddenly experienced slurred speech and a loss of vision.
“My symptoms were very sudden, over 24 hours,” she previously told the Brain Tumours Charity. “Initially doctors thought I’d had a stroke, but scans revealed a golf-ball-sized meningioma.”
She described the moment of diagnosis — and telling loved ones — as almost unbearable.
“It’s the initial shock of diagnosis and then the shock when you tell people that’s even more distressing,” she said. “It’s like a slap. Ringing your family and telling them is hideous.”
Throughout the ordeal, Nicki’s husband, music producer Dave Shackleton, was by her side. The couple, who married in 1999, have been together for more than two decades.
“He’s been amazing,” she said. “Much stronger than I thought he was going to be. In a way, it’s harder for those close to you.”
Remarkably, Nicki returned to work just six weeks after surgery — but she has been clear that she does not want the tumour to define her.
More than four years on, she says she has placed the experience into what she calls a mental “filing cabinet”.
“You do this with a lot of things in life,” she explained. “It will always be there, but I don’t need to keep opening it.”
Instead, Nicki is choosing to focus on the life she fought to keep — with gratitude, perspective and quiet determination.
