‘I wouldn’t be surprised if she stitched herself up after surgery’ – Martin King on his ‘Rambo’ wife Jenny McCarthy

Celebrity photographer Jenny McCarthy had to undergo surgery in February last year to remove a brain tumour that had returned after her initial surgery in February 2011.

Martin, who co-frontsIreland AM, said his wife of 12 years is “doing great now” and they are hopeful of positive results when she has another scan in a few weeks’ time. Thankfully, her tumour was benign.

“If that’s a good result, then the next scan won’t be for another 12 months,” he told the Irish Independent.

“Since the thing (tumour) came back, the scans are a bit more regular, but the last two scans have been clear. Her professor told us if this scan is clear, she won’t need one for another year.”

The recent health setback has “put everything into perspective” for them and they no longer worry about insignificant things.

“The first time, we thought we had dealt with it and then the bugger came back again so we all went back to that initial fear but also because of where we were the last time, we knew what was going to happen.

“You get beyond the first five years and you think, ‘OK this is good’ and then all of the scans after that, you’re going, ‘Brilliant, OK, it’s clear again.’

“I remember David McRedmond (former Virgin Media CEO) – his sister unfortunately was quite sick – saying that for every scan, you go back to that very first moment. And he was absolutely right, you do.

“You just go back to that first moment of, ‘What if it isn’t clear?’ We thought we were good and all of a sudden, she hadn’t been feeling too well and the scan revealed that something was there again so we were quite shocked.”

Surgeons had to “go in a little bit deeper” this time around to make sure they got all of the tumour and the recovery last year was much tougher for Jenny. But King said her fighting spirit was always there.

“She had the surgery at 7am and she rang that night going, ‘I just thought I‘d give you a call, I’m in the high-dependency unit and I’m OK’.

“And I was like, ‘You had your skull open today, get your phone away from your head.’ I couldn’t believe it when she rang me. But I’m married to Rambo. I wouldn’t be surprised if she stitched herself up after the surgery.”

He was speaking as he helped launch fundraiser Hospice Sunflower Days, which coincides with Virgin Media’s new documentary series Inside the Hospice. King said he had first-hand experience of a hospice when his sister-in-law, Margaret O’Neill, went into Harold’s Cross for support after her cancer battle.

The three-part series which airs tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday at 9pm is an intimate look at the staff and patients of Our Lady’s Hospice and Care Services.

It aims to dispel the misconception about hospices that they are only places where people die when in fact, they also provide respite, symptom control and end-of-life care.