Katie Hopkins undergoes brain surgery to treat epilepsy

Controversial columnist Katie Hopkins is undergoing brain surgery to treat epilepsy that has "plagued" her since she was 19.

Surgeons will remove part of her brain in an operation to prolong her life expectancy.

Writing in a column for the Daily Mail, the 41-year-old said the odds of an outright cure "aren't great".

She wrote: "One day my epilepsy will get the better of me. And I am not prepared to sit around and wait for that day to come."

Hopkins, who appeared on The Apprentice, will have her head shaved and spend four to eight hours in the operating theatre, followed by 24 hours in intensive care.

"I will see you on the other side," she said.

Hopkins said she had wanted to be the first female Army general, but her condition saw her "slung out" of the forces after completing the commissioning course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. She also said it is why her arms have dislocated 42 times in three years.

The LBC radio host told her 600,000 Twitter followers in November that she had to have two front teeth removed after a fall caused by her epilepsy.

When she was on Celebrity Big Brother in January last year, the Devon-born star had to sleep away from the other housemates due to her condition.

She wrote in her column that she had waited to have the surgery until her children - aged seven, 10 and 11 - were old enough to be "brave and smart enough to remember the things I want them to know".