Tara Palmer-Tomkinson opens up about brain tumour: 'I thought I was going to die'

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson has told how she feared she was going to die when doctors revealed she had a brain tumour.

The former "It girl", 44, has received treatment for the non-malignant growth in her pituitary gland since January and said it has now cleared.

She told the Daily Mail: "I went to the doctors to talk about my latest blood test results when I got back from skiing in January.

"I said: 'What does this mean? Can you translate it?' And the doctor said: 'As I suspected, you have a brain tumour'.

"I got terribly frightened. I started thinking, 'I'm going to die, I'm going to die. I've only got a couple of weeks to live.' Stuff like that."

Ms Palmer-Tomkinson, who has battled drug problems in the past, also said the blood tests found she was suffering with an auto-immune disease which had caused tiredness, joint pain and acute anaemia.

But the former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! contestant hit out at some media coverage because she said it had been assumed her frailty was as a result of "bloody cocaine".

She said: "It has been really hard. This whole summer was quite bad.

"There were pictures of me going shopping with my sister. I've got white pyjamas on and was just leaving the hospital to go shopping."