Strictly legend Russell Grant has revealed how he was rushed to hospital over a worrying symptom in his eye and was told there is ‘no cure’.
The astrologer, who appeared on the BBC how in 2011, explained how he woke up with ‘strange cottony things floating’ in his left eye on Monday.
Russell then dashed to the hospital’s eye clinic to see what was wrong with him and doctors confirmed he had a bleed behind the eye.
The TV personality told how he was warned he will have to get used to the floating particles because there is currently no cure for the condition.
Sharing his plight on Twitter, Russell said: ‘Monday: I woke with strange cottony things floating in my left eye. Headed to the opticians for tests.
‘Next day @BlackpoolHosp called: day after into the eye clinic. Result: I had a bleed behind my eye but no retinal damage but it seems I have to befriend the floater! No cure.’
Strictly legend Russell Grant has revealed how he was rushed to hospital over a worrying symptom in his eye and was told there is ‘no cure’
Sharing his plight on Twitter , Russell said: ‘Monday: I woke with strange cottony things floating in my left eye. Headed to the opticians for tests
Russell was previously diagnosed with a brain tumour – and admitted his initial reaction was to go into a period of denial.
He underwent a six-hour invasion procedure to remove a tumour on his pituitary gland shortly before Christmas 2022.
He had the procedure to remove the lump from his pituitary gland after doctors said it threatened to ‘blank out’ his optic nerve.
But he revealed how he was ‘so scared’ prior to the procedure, adding that he was full of gratitude for the medical team whom completed the operation.
He told The Mirror: ‘I was in denial. I was so scared. Then one day I had a Zoom call with my neurosurgeon Professor Omar Pathmanaban. He was lovely, so reassuring.
‘But what topped it off was he then said: “It would be an honour and a privilege to take away your tumour… when I was a kid my mother and I used to watch you every morning on breakfast telly. It made me late for school.”‘
Russell was instructed not to sneeze or blow his nose for the next six months in a bid to prevent complications from the surgery.
He recalled how a lecture at the Northern Lights astrological society in Blackpool in December 2019 led him to believe he would face ‘serious challenges’.
Russell was previously diagnosed with a brain tumour – and admitted his initial reaction was to go into a period of denial
Russell and his dance partner Joanne Clifton during a Christmas special for Strictly Come Dancing in 2014
Within a week, his mother suffered a stroke, before Covid began spreading across the UK three months later and a brain tumour began to develop.
His mother moved into a care home near the family property in Watford, before she died aged 93 in January 2021.
He said his mum was holding the hand of her granddaughter Joanna at the time of her passing.
Recalling her death, Grant said: ‘I went into a great deal of grieving. It was terrible. I felt guilty, I felt I had let her down, even though I’d been looking after her since the 1970s, but I wasn’t there at the end.’
He subsequently dropped from 21st to 15st in the following months, before tests showed his body had none of the stress hormone cortisone.
Russell was reluctant to undergo an MRI, but a scan revealed a tumour was pressing against his optic nerve.
Without a major procedure, he was told he could lose his sight.
Initially reluctant, singer and friend Russell Watson – who had the same surgery in 2006 – urged Grant undergo the operation immediately.
Russell was instructed not to sneeze or blow his nose for the next six months in a bid to prevent complications from the surgery
The astrologer chose the date of his surgery based on his astrology charts – choosing November 24.
Describing life since the surgery, he added: ‘It’s reminded me every day is precious and every day I need to do something that is important, not just for me but for the wider world.’
‘Things are brighter for me, but they are still not quite right. But they say it will be a six month recovery period.’
