Russell Watson speaks out about his brain tumour

Opera star Russell Watson said he thought he was going to die when he was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery on a brain tumour.

The singer, 41, underwent a three-hour operation at The Alexandra Hospital in Cheadle, Cheshire, seven weeks ago – just 12 months after doctors removed a benign tumour.

In his first live interview since surgery, Watson, known as The Voice, candidly revealed his fears for his life. “Basically when I was rushed into hospital I was very ill and the doctors told me when I arrived that it was touch and go and I wasn’t really aware of what was going on anyway,” he told Kate Garraway during a phone interview on ITV’s GMTV.

“I was flitting in and out of consciousness. I remember hearing lots of medical people saying words like ‘haemorrhage’ and lots of scary and things and thinking to myself, ‘oh dear. I don’t think I’m going to make it this time’.

“But all due credit to the medical staff there they did an absolutely fantastic job part the surgeon.”

Watson said he had felt fine in the days leading up to his relapse. “I actually felt like I was well on the road to recovery and then I went for a follow-up scan a little while ago and they told me there was some regrowth.

“But obviously I wasn’t aware of the severity until the day I was rushed into hospital.

“I hadn’t noticed anything symptomatically similar to the last time so I wasn’t suffering from the heavy headaches or anything like that.

“But it was very scary and the previous night before I was rushed to hospital, I started being sick.”

Watson spoke honestly about dealing with the news that the cancer had returned.

“The tumour had come back very strong actually, and was a considerable size again – not too dissimilar to the size it was last time – and because I’d started vomiting in the night it had caused the tumour to haemorrhage and also it had swelled because of the pressure I was putting on it when I was being sick, and that had pushed my optic nerve right up and so my vision had gone.

“Fortunately the opera singer said the operation shouldn’t have a lasting affect on his voice. He said: “I don’t think it will. Because of the nature of the operation, there was a small threat.

“There might be some problems as they couldn’t go in through my nose this time, they had to go in through the back of my lip because there was scar tissue from the last operation which made this operation more tricky, and also because I was haemorrhaging that made it more tricky.

“It was a scary operation.”

But Watson ensured his fans that the disease wouldn’t beat him – and his new album will still be out in time for Christmas.

He said: “There won’t be any singing for me for a while, my management and record company recommended I didn’t release my record which had been planned for Christmas release, but I knew the fans were looking forward to hearing my new stuff.

“I said, ‘I know I’m not going to be able to promote it and not going to be doing a tour but maybe next year I’ll come back and hopefully promote it properly when the radiotherapy has been a success’ because I’ve got that to come in the New Year.”

Watson is due to undergo a course of treatment starting on January 2, 2008.

He said: “The tumour had got so big it had found itself in a lot of the areas around the front of the skull where there’s a lot of nerves that can’t be removed with the knife. It has to be with radiotherapy.

“I have to get a mask fitted to protect you when having radiotherapy.

“I’m not looking forward to it but I think maybe when it starts I’ll feel like hopefully this will be the end and there’ll be no comeback tour for the tumour next year.”

The singer, who lives near Cheadle, hit the big time after performing at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground in 2000.