Nicki Chapman struggles with reading following brain surgery
Nicki Chapman underwent a four-and-a-half-hour operation to have a golf ball-sized benign tumour removed in 2019.
Nicki Chapman struggles with reading after having brain surgery.
The TV presenter underwent a four-and-a-half-hour operation to have a golf ball-sized benign tumour removed in 2019.
Although the surgery was successful, it has now left Nicki, 59, not being able to absorb and retain information as effectively.
On the latest episode of comedian Tom Price's My Mate Bought a Toaster podcast, the ex-Pop Idol judge said: "Sadly, I struggle with reading now. I can read, obviously, but my concentration is gone.
"I had a brain tumour, and I don't know whether it's age or anything, but the attention span has gone when I read. I can read, but I have to really concentrate."
Nicki added: "I have to learn my scripts, I just find everything takes a little bit longer. Learning my lines takes longer, retaining information takes a little bit longer."
The Escape to the Country host said not being able to retain information as well as she could before her brain surgery is a "small price to pay" to be alive.
In March 2019, Nicki first experienced sudden symptoms of her tumour when she had a change in her vision.
The Spice Girls' former manager told the Daily Mail that year: "I couldn’t seem to move my eyes across a line of words to read them on my computer. And I struggled to type a response to emails. Shacky said I was probably just tired.
"Then I went for coffee with a girlfriend and asked her, 'Do I look funny to you? I’m only looking at you with one eye.' But she said I looked fine."
And then she suffered with memory lapses.
Nicki added: "I went to do a voice-over for Escape To The Country, and I couldn’t remember the name of John, the executive producer. I’ve known him for 15 years. I had to look it up on my phone.
"Then I realised my speech was subtly affected. I was talking about a holiday we’d just had in Dubai. I could see the word Dubai in my mind, but I struggled to say it. I told myself it must be the menopause.
"I told John about it, and he asked if I suffer from migraines - I don’t - because he does and has similar problems. I did the voice-over, went home, did some housework, then put on the computer, and the words on it were blurred.
"Really, it all happened in the space of a couple of days."
Nicki - who also experienced speech problems - described her symptoms to her doctor, and they told the star to go to Accident and Emergency (A+E) at Charing Cross Hospital in Hammersmith, London.
A neurosurgeon then told Nicki she had a golf ball-sized benign brain tumour on the back, left-hand side of her head "for years".
Several days later, Nicki was told that they needed to operate "quite soon" on the tumour because it was "pressing on my brain".
At the start of May, the ex-music publicist went to the National Health Service (NHS)-run Charing Cross Hospital for her four-and-a-half hour operation, which was successful.
Nicki told the publication: "The NHS care I’ve had at the Charing Cross Hospital in London has been first class. Amazing. And I’ve found an inner strength.
"My mum said, 'I’m a tough old bird, and you’re like me, Nicki.'"
