More Famous People With Lumps In Their Head.

So it turns out that by far my most popular post on this blog so far is the one entitled "Russell Watson, It's Not All About You". I don't know whether my readers just happen to have enduring personal grievances with Russell Watson, or are simply opera purists who object to his pop-operatic croonings. Or maybe it's something else.

So, I'm faced with a choice. In my relentless pursuit of pageviews, should I begin writing reams of personal abuse about Mr Watson, or simply continue to shine a spotlight on the other pituitary ademoaners of the world?

I choose the latter option, and not just because of Britain's vast and unyielding libel laws.*

And so, I present:

A Panoply of Pituitary Problems, or: More Famous People With Lumps In Their Head.

Once again I must apologise for the preponderance of people with acromegaly on this list! Acromegaly is an extremely rare illness, caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland which produces excessive growth hormone. However, acromegaly's symptoms are so visually striking that, especially if the illness occurs in childhood - when it will lead to massive growth in height (gigantism), as well as the growth of soft tissue and bone which occur in adult acromegaly - its sufferers are very visible. So-called "giants" are in demand for certain roles in the film and television industry, as well as certain sports where their height gives them an advantage. Consequently, it's relatively easy to find famous acromegaly sufferers, while celebrities who suffer from other kinds of pituitary adenoma may keep their diagnosis private.

I certainly think that it would be helpful if there were celebrities who were known to have Cushing's, or prolactinoma; it helps sufferers to feel that they're not alone, and emphasizes the fact that, while a pituitary adenoma can be a significant bloody nuisance, it's not the end of the world - and that there are plenty of other people going through the same problems.

Obviously I think it would be awesome if a famous person was known to have a TSH-oma/thyrotropinoma. But if that doesn't happen, well I guess I'll just have to step up to the celebrity line!**

Anyway, back to the point. Presenting:

Carel Struycken
Carel Struycken is an actor and an acromegaly sufferer; he stands seven foot tall. Born in the Netherlands in 1948, he's now 63 years old. You might recognise him from playing Lurch in the Addams Family films (click here for a picture!); he's also appeared in Star Trek: the Next Generation, Men In Black, and even Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. According to my trusty Wikipedia, he's interested in photography and the development of virtual reality systems. A pretty cool guy by all standards!

Richard Kiel
Richard Kiel is another well-known actor who suffers from acromegaly; his most famous role was as Jaws in the James Bond films. He's now largely retired, although he voiced a character in the animated film Tangled which came out in 2010, and he's written two books; one a memoir entitled Making It Big In The Movies, the second a historical novel co-authored with Pamela Wallace, about the life of Cassius Marcellus Clay, a 19th-Century abolitionist.

Scott Hamilton
Scott Hamilton, the Olympic gold medallist figure skater, is a craniopharyngioma sufferer. I've not previously mentioned craniopharyngiomas, but like pituitary adenomas they're a rare kind of benign pituitary tumour. They cause similar symptoms to pituitary adenomas; they can interfere with hormone production, although they will cause hormone deficits rather than overproduction of pituitary hormones, and they cause headaches and vision loss. They're most common in children and middle-aged adults; Scott Hamilton was diagnosed with craniopharyngioma aged 51. A remarkable guy, Hamilton won four consecutive World Championships and created Stars On Ice.

Hamilton's last performance on Stars On Ice

UPDATE: For those of you who just can't get enough of hearing about famous people with pituitary tumours, I've also written a post about famous people with Cushing's Disease, a post about famous women with acromegaly, my original post about Russell Watson that sparked this whole thing off, and my first post about famous tumourheads!
__________________________________________________
*Russell Watson, I love you.

**Admittedly, I haven't quite worked out how I'll achieve fame. Through my own line of edible greetings cards? By streaking at the London Olympics? For my charitable work with walruses? Ideas on a postcard please.

Russell Watson

I was originally going to make the title "Russell Watson: What You Got, Son?" but obviously, that would be stupid. So I decided not to mention it.

Ahem.

Anyway, today's post is (surprisingly) about international singing sensation and all-round famous guy Russell Watson. Ever heard of him? NOR HAD I.

But last year he popped up on an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which aired on the evening of the 2nd December. I had an important exam the next day, so obviously I was watching. Mr Watson mentioned that he had had a brain tumour. I, as yet undiagnosed,* thought nothing more of it, not least because the notorious buffoon Tim Westwood was hosting the show and I was quite busy despising him.

About a week later, I got the call from the hospital announcing that I had a pituitary adenoma. Russell Watson was far from my mind. But then one day, as I was waiting to collect a takeaway in my local Chinese, I began paging through their ancient and tattered copies of the Daily Mail** and came across a month-old article about the same Mr Watson and his second round of brain surgery for a "benign brain tumour".

So obviously I had to look it up. After a bit of searching, my suspicions were confirmed: Russell Watson's pituitary gland also enjoys cultivating adenomas in its spare time. I can't really say why knowing this made me feel better, but I guess it's just vaguely reassuring to know that there are other people out there. The poor guy had a particularly nasty case of the pituitary tumour as well, he's had two surgeries and radiotherapy, and the first surgery apparently had a knock-on effect to his pituitary function, something which so far I've been lucky enough to avoid.

 However, I would like to take this opportunity to glower at the British press for their woeful lack of precision when reporting on brain tumours. It seems that any distinction beyond that of "benign" and "cancerous" is completely beyond them. For anyone who knows their oligodendroglioma from their meningioma, and particularly for anyone trying to identify famous fellow tumourheads, it makes life rather challenging. Are the details of a diagnosis too much to ask for?

Also, while I don't mean to sound like a stalker who's read every article on the subject, I have to say that I particularly empathised with the last lines from with Russell Watson in this article: "Specialists repeatedly told him that he was only suffering from stress, to which he replied: 'The only thing that's stressing me is this pain in my head.'"

Just like all the years of me visiting various doctors complaining that my hair was falling out. And my heart was doing funny things. And I felt tired all the time.***

UPDATE: You may also be interested in further posts I've made about famous people with pituitary adenomas, which you can find here and here, and there's also this post specifically looking at famous people with Cushing's Disease and another post looking at the strange shortage of famous women with acromegaly when compared to their male counterparts.
________________________________________________________________________
*Though admittedly in the realm of "we're pretty sure it's a pituitary adenoma. Because it's the only idea we have left".

** Oh god. I know. I'm so sorry. I'll never do it again.

***Any doctor treating me in future may be interested to know that if any symptom I may display is ever put down to "stress" again, I will not be held responsible for my actions. Of course, being accused of suffering from "stress" comes with the unfortunate Catch-22 that anyone repeatedly insisting that they're not bloody stressed looks exactly like a stressed-out mentalist. Le sigh.