TV star Davina McCall visited an 11-year-old who had the same brain tumour as her.

The former Big Brother presenter travelled to the Tunbridge Wells home of Kirsty Waugh and talked with the schoolgirl about having cancer.

Kirsty received her “bombshell” diagnosis of a grade one benign brain tumour on November 15 – the same day McCall, who lives in the town, told the public she had surgery to remove a similar tumour.

Noticing the coincidence, Kirsty’s parents, Mat and Kate, tried their luck to get a message from the 57-year-old.

After getting in touch through a friend of a friend, the celebrity not only sent Kirsty a video message but agreed to visit the family's home.

Mat, a children's author, says Davina was “lovely and warm and generous” and spent more than an hour chatting with all Waugh’s, including older sisters Isla and Doris.

The 53-year-old said: “They talked a lot about their respective cancer treatment.

“It was a really uplifting experience. We all felt better for having spoken to her.

“She is a very funny woman so there was an enormous amount of laughing. And a lot of hugging.

“We have grown up seeing Davina on TV from Big Brother right through to The Masked Singer. It was like speaking to a friend that you know about but have just never met.”

Kirsty first noticed some symptoms around September last year when she began having trouble with her eyesight.

Opticians couldn’t fix the issue by using lenses so her parents then took her to the GP where she was signed up for some tests.

But while waiting for her appointment, she started feeling fatigued and having memory loss.

On Friday, November 15, things took a turn for the worse and Kirsty started vomiting in the mornings.

It urged her dad to rush her to the hospital, where she had an MRI test. Later that day, they were told of the devastating news that she had a brain tumour.

The dad of three said: “It was just me and her that day as her mum was away, and I just thought something didn’t feel right.

“They took me into a side room to tell me that she had a brain tumour. It was a very surreal time because she seemed absolutely fine on the outside.

“It was a bombshell day. It is like something has flattened everything you know and believe in.

“I was absolutely devastated. It was really hard to take in.

“It was so strange because we would be talking about this with a box of tissues and then I would have to wipe my face and go back to Kirsty who was absolutely fine on the outside.”

Kirsty underwent a gruelling seven-hour operation five days later, where doctors took a little bit of the tumour away but they were unable to access all of it.

The schoolgirl, who will start grammar school in September, began chemotherapy the following week on a cycle of 70 weeks of treatment.

Now, the tumour has begun to shrink, and in February her eyesight started to recover, along with her memory, which Mat says allowed her to read books and watch movies again.

Kirsty has been tolerating treatment well but has aches and pains, vertigo, and her hair is thinning a bit.

Nevertheless, she has remained positive the whole time, even naming her tumour Terry after her favourite character in the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.

Mat added: “We are really only at the beginning of a very long journey.

“But for now at least, we have got much of the girl back that we had in August 2024.

“As Davina said, benign doesn’t mean fine, because the tumour can cause all sorts of problems just by being there.

“When she got better, we almost didn’t want to talk about it because it could go again. Nothing is permanent.

"But to see her pick up a book again was absolutely brilliant. You take all of that completely for granted until it’s gone.”

To give back to those who gave her great care, Kirsty is crocheting 70 bunting triangles – marking each week of her treatment – to raise money for Children with Cancer UK.

To view the fundraiser, click here.

So far, the campaign has raised more than £22,000 for charity, and the family have delivered leaflets about the work to thousands of homes across the county.

Mat said: “She couldn’t see the end of the crochet hook, so she was just doing it based on touch.

“After her operation, it was the first thing she wanted to pick up again.

“We are astonishingly proud of her, and how all three of them have reacted to this life-changing news.”