BRAVE TV presenter Glenn Campbell revealed he reported on General and Scottish elections – without the “faintest idea” a tumour was growing inside his brain.
BBC Scotland’s political editor only found out he had terminal brain cancer after a serious bike fall in June last year.
But he was left stunned when experts said he probably had the tumour for at least five years – which would have covered Boris Johnson’s 2019 Westminster victory before Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP returned to power in 2021.
Glenn, 48, said: “Doctors have told me it had been quietly growing in my head for five years, perhaps longer.
“It made me think of all the things I’ve done with a brain tumour without having the faintest idea.”
The married dad-of-two bust 10 ribs when he fell on a bike ride to the village of Gifford near his home in East Lothian. last summer.
But six weeks after his recovery he suffered a seizure which made him feel “drunk” before being rushed back into hospital where a scan revealed he had an incurable tumour and told he had around a year to live.
Glenn then had to undergo a five hour brain op at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on his 10th wedding anniversary to journalist wife Claire, quipping: “Brain surgery is a funny way to celebrate.”
But Islay-born Glenn receives “good news” that although incurable, his cancer – called an Oligodendroglioma – wasn’t the most aggressive type first feared.
On the BBC Scotland documentary My Brain Tumour and Me screened tonight (Wed) at 7pm, he explained: “In that moment my average life expectancy went from months to years.”
However Glenn suffered further setbacks when he had a seizure at work, which required him to be put into a medically induced coma.
Then his bucket list wish of completing all of Scotland’s 282 Munros – mountains over 3,000ft high – hit a snag in March this year when he collapsed at the Ben Lawers car park near Killin, Perthshire.
Glenn even filmed harrowing footage of himself having a seizure on the munro before being airlifted to hospital.
A further scan showed “regrowth” of the tumour. He admits: “That’s not what we expected, especially as we’ve been poisoning it for months now with radiotherapy and chemotherapy.”
But the documentary ends on a high note revealing that his most recent scan in September was “clearer than before”.
Glenn said: “I am now thinking about extending my bucket list. I didn’t think I would have a 50th birthday, now I’m thinking it could be possible I might be here for my 60th.”
