OP SO COME!
about the Chelsea Flower Show,” she marvels. “I didn’t know if I was going to have sight in my right eye and I lost my power of speech beforehand.
“My speech is perfect now and my memory is great. The only thing I struggle with is if there are lots of people in a group talking quite loudly.
“I also struggle with certain people’s voices if they are very high, and it’s hard in a restaurant to hear if it’s noisy.
“I can read magazines, but I still don’t read many books, I struggle to focus.
“But hey, if that’s all that has changed then I am a lucky girl. There are loads of people who’ve had brain tumours who haven’t recovered.”
However, coronavirus has affected her treatment. “Like many patients, my check-up has been cancelled. But I am sure they wouldn’t have done that if they were worried about me, so I’m going to be seeing them in November.”
During lockdown, she has kept herself busy in her precious garden.
“The local nursery drop off plants – the lavender is beautiful – and so for the last three weeks we put our hearts and soul into it and the plants look
‘I still wear clothes I wore 20 years ago’
gorgeous,” she says happily. In between filming and gardening, Nicki has been cooking and exercising.
“I work out three or four times a week. I’ve got a problem with my ankle but I go for a walk maybe once a week, early morning or evening with Shacky because I don’t want to be bumping into 15-20 other people,” she says.
“I do Pilates in front of the TV and then we get on our Peloton, an exercise bike we treated ourselves to last Christmas. My husband will do his cycle workout to rock music and I’ll do mine to 80s or 90s pop.
“I feel so much better. Now, I’m probably more toned than I was, even though my weight doesn’t fluctuate that much, only by about half a stone. I still wear clothes I wore 20 years ago.”
Nicki is “devastated” that Chelsea is cancelled but is thrilled to be back with Sophie Raworth, Joe Swift and Monty Don for the lockdown coverage.
“Looking back, it makes me realise how far I have come,” she says. “The other night we managed to have a ‘socially distanced’ drink with our neighbours over the wall.
“I had a glass of rosé and I did think, ‘Really, this isn’t so bad’ and it made me think how lucky I am to be here.”
● RHS Chelsea Flower Show, BBC, May 17-22