Nathan Clements waited more than 20 years to receive treatment to remove a brain cyst similar to TV star Davina McCall’s.
The 50-year-old from Bridgend first started experiencing migraines in his teenage years and after years of “nothing being done” it was discovered only 10 years ago.
The tennis ball-sized tumour was removed just a day after his diagnosis, but has left him with life-long complications, and he is urging people to push for answers if they feel something is not right.
McCall, who has presented Channel 4’s Big Brother, ITV’s Long Lost Family, and My Mum, Your Dad, along with Comic and Sport Relief for the BBC, received surgery this week to remove a colloid cyst.
Mr Clements said while brain tumours may be rare, being persistent saved his life.
His symptoms started in 1988 as a teenager after going to his GP about getting migraines but “nothing was really done for years and years”.
More than two decades later he was diagnosed with a brain tumour, aged 40, after having what he called a funny turn while driving to university where he was studying history.
After further testing, he was told he had an eperdermoid cyst which measured 68 x 68 x 76 mm (2.6 x 2.6 x 3in).
“You could put a tennis ball inside it,” he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.
Surgeons operated the day after his diagnosis, telling him that he could die if it was not removed.
An eperdermoid cyst is a non-cancerous growth, made up of either fluid and skin or just skin cells and accounts for less than 1% of benign brain tumours.
As part of the colloid cyst group, the rate of growth and symptoms can vary from person to person, according to the Brain Trust.
Mr Clements thanks his wife Sarah who he said would not take no for an answer and pushed harder for results on his behalf.
“We all have superheroes, some have capes, mine wears a wedding ring.”
The cyst was herniating (where an organ or other tissue protrudes through an opening) onto Nathan’s brain stem, and part of it had calcified due to the length of time it had been there, eroding areas of his skull.
“The length of time the cyst was in there for has almost made the cyst itself secondary in terms of the issues I now have.
“I’ve had four titanium plates fitted and removed – I now have very poor balance and need a wheelchair,” he added.
The ordeal has left him with lasting damage, and he now regularly uses morphine to dull his pain.
He is urging people to push for answers and be persistent if they feel there is something wrong with their health.
“Not everybody with migraines has a cyst or tumour, the vast majority don’t, but if one person listens to this and gets checked that would be great, as I don’t want anyone’s to grow as big as mine did.”
“The main reason I want to talk about this is to urge people not to take no for an answer – push if you’re in this situation – get that scan! The longer you leave it undiagnosed, the worse it will be.”
McCall shared the news that she had found a colloid cyst during an unrelated health scan last week and after spending some time “putting her head in the sand”, as she put it, she spoke to neurologists and decided it needed to be removed.
She received surgery earlier this week and is now out of intensive care.
Her partner Michael Douglas said she had made an “enormous step forward” in an update post on her Instagram page.
Additional reporting by Ben Dain-Smith.