EXCLUSIVE I chose op date using astrology.. Doc said: I’d expect nothing less

THE sparkle and warmth the nation had come to love about Britain’s favourite astrologer was gone.

Instead, Russell Grant sat silently, paralysed with fear about the action needed to deal with his growing tumour.

Medics, friends and family were encouraging him to be brave and go ahead with surgery to get rid of the pituitary gland tumour.

“But I was in denial,” says Mirror astrologer Russell, 72. “I was so scared.

“Then I had a Zoom call with my neurosurgeon, Prof Omar Pathmanaban. He was lovely and so reassuring.

“But what topped it off was he 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 is full of gratitude for all the medics who helped him through his sixhour operation last November. This week he revealed his battle in a tweet to mark Brain Tumour Awareness Month.

And today, the Strictly star tells the Mirror about his ordeal – and how in December 2019, the astrological signs told him serious challenges lay ahead.

Russell says: “I was giving a lecture at the Northern Lights Astrological Society in Blackpool. At the end I said, ‘The world has some serious challenges coming up over the next three to four years.

CHALLENGED

“The power of slow moving planets, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto means it won’t just be for the world but for each individual. The weak points of ourselves are going to be seriously challenged’.”

Russell thought that for himself, it might mean problems with his hip, knee or back which had been troublesome. But within a week his mum had a stroke, Covid was coming and unbeknown to him, he was developing a tumour.

After her stroke and with signs of dementia, his mum moved into a care home near the family home close to

Watford. With the nation in lockdown for much of 2020, he was barely able to leave his home in Wales to visit.

Russell says: “I spoke to her on the phone twice a day and with the dementia, I don’t think it occurred to her I couldn’t get to see her.

“She was sensational, like Ethel Merman… the hostess with the mostess.”

On January 13, 2021, Russell’s mother passed away at 93.

But with England and Wales in another lockdown, he was unable to attend the funeral and had to say farewell over Zoom.

Russell says: “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.”

Over the next six months, Russell put his sudden weight loss down to grief. Then he began suffering extreme burning sensations all over his body.

He weighed himself and found he had dropped from 21st to 15st. In January last year, he went to his GP. Blood tests showed his body had none of the stress hormone cortisone and he was prescribed hydrocortisone tablets.

Russell adds: “I began to panic. They wanted me to go for an MRI scan but I didn’t want to face it.”

Doctors feared Russell had a brain tumour, like his dad 20 years earlier. But until he agreed to a scan they were unable to diagnose it. When he finally had one, it revealed the tumour was benign but was pressing on his optic nerve and without surgery, he would lose his sight.

Russell would need a major operation conducted by two surgeons – one a brain specialist and the other an ear, nose and throat expert. He adds: “Thinking back to my 2019 lecture, I thought, ‘Well, these planets haven’t f ***** g let me down.’”

Russell turned to his showbiz pal, singer Russell Watson, for advice as he had the same operation in 2006.

He says: “I sent him a text and told him what was happening. He told me, ‘Oh God. Get it out your head NOW.’

“What I wanted to do was run away into the mountains like Heidi.”

STRENGTH

Then one day, in the quiet Catholic church in Snowdonia where Russell worships, he received a sign which gave him the strength he needed.

He explains: “I was sending a prayer up saying, ‘What shall I do?’ And it was like I saw my dad’s face, saying, ‘Get it done’.”

Russell’s schoolboy fan from his morning TV days, now a leading brain surgeon, agreed to do the surgery. But the star had one unusual request.

He says: “I said to Prof Pathmanaban, ‘Can I choose the date by astrology when you operate?’ He replied: ‘Of course, I would have expected nothing less.’ So I looked at my astrology charts for a day which would bring optimism and positivity and came up with November 24.

“It was a full moon. All we really needed was a Sagittarian on the medical team and it would be fine.”

Days before the operation, Russell received a call from one of his closest friends, Hi-de-Hi! actress Ruth Madoc.

He says: “We chatted. At the end I said, ‘Do take care, Ruth, we have some very heavy aspects around us’. And she died a couple of weeks later.”

Russell was in theatre from 2.15pm until 8.15pm as the surgeons removed his tumour through his nose.

He is overwhelmed by the NHS care he has received – and incandescent at how staff are being treated by the Tories. “How dare they not give them a raise?” he fumes. Russell has healed well, but it has made him reassess life.

He says: “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.”

These days, Russell spends most of his time working on his daily stars column but also writing about history. He is also heavily involved in non-league football.

So are his stars starting to look brighter? “Not yet,” he says. “Things are brighter for me, but they are still not quite right. But they say it will be a six-month recovery period.”

Oh yes… and about that operation being such a success?

“I saw my ear, nose and throat surgeon Dr Raj Bhalla for a check-up,” Russell says. “He asked why November 24 had been such an important day.

“I explained about the positivity and the moon and he said, ‘Oh, I just wondered because it was my birthday.’ He’s Sagittarius!”

I was in denial, but my surgeon was lovely... he was so reassuring RUSSELL ON MOMENT HE RECEIVED DIAGNOSIS