I’M OVER BRAIN CHELSEA HERE I
Man accused of murder from 2017
performing in his heyday. He sang there with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr as part of the Rat Pack.
Describing the hologram concept as “very interesting”, singer and actress Deana said: “I have no idea how they do it.
“I may be doing something like that next year, hopefully with him, which could be fun so I could do duets with him.”
The idea of a Martin hologram raises the prospect of a digital
Rat Pack reunion.
Deana, 71, would be in favour but accepts it could be a difficult deal to make. She said: “You never know. I have no idea, but I think it would be great.”
A MAN has been charged with a murder from almost three years ago.
David Egan, 23, is charged with the murder of Danny Pearce, 31, on July 15, 2017.
He died after being stabbed in Greenwich, south-east London.
Police say that at least four shots were also fired in the direction of Mr Pearce.
Egan, from of Deptford, south-east London, has also been charged with possession of a firearm, robbery and possession of an offensive weapon.
He was charged with two further robberies and having an imitation firearm to carry out an offence.
BRITAIN’S gardens have been a haven for millions during lockdown.
That goes too for TV presenter Nicki Chapman, who this time last year was recovering from surgery to remove a major brain tumour.
But for Nicki, one of the hosts of the BBC’S week-long celebration of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, cancelled by Covid 19, it’s even more special as it played a huge part in her recovery.
“It’s been a big part of my healing process,” she says. “I couldn’t do any gardening after my operation. I was hallucinating and had dizzy spells but I’d sit outside and that was all I needed, to see the plants and bees and birds.
“It’s only a small London garden, maybe 12ft by 12ft, but having that outdoor space made all the difference.”
Nicki is on TV next Sunday after having overcome fears that she wouldn’t be able to take part – BBC bosses asked her to see if she was on the coronavirus vulnerable patients list.
Nicki, 53, says: “I don’t ever want my tumour to define who I am. But when the BBC asked if I was OK to film in the safety of my own garden and if I could double-check that I was not on the vulnerable list, I had no idea if I was or not.
“They were very strict and I had to speak to my doctor to make sure that I wasn’t on the list before I committed to presenting. I called him and he told me, ‘No, you’re not’, which was a relief.”
Nicki understands that there’s still some uncertainty around her health.
“Although I had an operation to remove the tumour and it was benign, I still have it,” she says. “They couldn’t get it all out – it was far too dangerous. But I didn’t need any treatment afterwards and now I don’t think about it. It’s only when people ask me about it that I remember it.”
Although Chelsea has been cancelled she will be giving viewers an exclusive peek into her own garden as well as fronting other new treats alongside highlights of past years.
Having led the BBC’S daytime coverage since 2006, Nicki recalls how the brain tumour news hit her like a bolt from the blue.while recovering from a knee operation, she experienced a loss of vision and slurred speech.
“My symptoms were very sudden, over 24 hours. Doctors thought I’d had a stroke but scans revealed a golf-ball sized meningioma,” she says. “Being diagnosed was a massive shock and when you have to ring your family and tell them, it’s even more distressing.”
Finding out that surgery was scheduled before the start of the Chelsea Flower Show 2019 was a further blow.
“When they told me that I was ill, I was devastated, but I was even more upset when I knew I couldn’t do the show and I cried,” she recalls.
“I’ve done it for years and, of all the shows I present, it’s the one I really regretted not being able to do. But I had to follow my doctor’s advice.
“I was born a positive person and I was positive up until a couple of days before the operation and then my husband had to scrape me up off the floor. I was verging on hysterical.
“I was very anxious indeed and I cried and I cried. I did go to pieces. You have those times, but then you have to pick yourself up and go, ‘OK enough now, I am going to try and move on’.”
After a four-and-a-half hour operation, Nicki recalls how she amazed doctors with her rapid recovery at the home in Chiswick, west London, that she shares with her husband, music executive Dave “Shacky” Shackleton.
“Although I felt fine, I was told that I had to give myself the best possible chance to heal,” says Nicki. “But although I had only been out of hospital for a couple of weeks, my husband took me to the Chelsea preview day for a couple of hours and it was glorious.
“I bumped into Nick Knowles and the team – and it makes me teary to talk about it even now – because even the growers and the designers came up to see how I was because they had seen that I had a brain tumour. It did make me cry, and it made my husband cry, too, because everyone was so kind.”
And she realises how far she has come since the operation and how she could easily have lost her eyesight and speech. “I am lucky that I am here 12 months later and, yes, I still have got the brain tumour but here I am talking
‘Everyone was so kind it made me cry’