RUSSELL WATSON - WATSON'S CANCER PREMONITION

WATSON'S CANCER PREMONITION

British opera star RUSSELL WATSON was unsurprised by his harrowing brain tumour diagnosis last year (06) - he had a premonition he would die before middle age. The singer had the growth removed in September in a five hour emergency operation to save his life. But while fans were stunned by the tragic news, Watson admits he kept a steely calm because he'd been expecting the illness for some time. He says, "Since an early age I'd had an in-built premonition, a vision that I wouldn't make 40. For the previous seven years I'd had a recurring nightmare in which my head exploded. "And here I was with a brain tumour on the eve of my 40th birthday; I thought, 'This is it, I was right, I knew it.'" However, Watson's miraculous recovery has given him a new zest for life and shown him where his priorities lie. He says, "It made me appreciate the importance of relationships, of friends and family, and most of all, my two daughters. My fear for them if I died - that was the worst part."