Married at First Sight star Mel Schilling diagnosed with cancer
Married at First Sight Australia expert Mel Schilling has revealed she’s been diagnosed with cancer just before Christmas.
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Married at First Sight Australia expert Mel Schilling has revealed she’s been diagnosed with cancer.
The 51-year-old shared the devastating news on Instagram this morning, revealing she was given the diagnosis just last week – a mere two weeks before Christmas.
“’YOU HAVE CANCER’. Three little words that everyone dreads but no one ever expects to hear,” she captioned a photo of herself hugging her husband Gareth Brisbane and their daughter Madison, 8, in front of their Christmas tree.
“Last Thursday my consultant told me those 3 words.”
Schilling explained that she developed “severe stomach cramps” last month while filming the upcoming new season of MAFS, but she put the pain down to “all the travel I’d been doing”. Her GP also said it was due “to constipation” and gave her some laxatives to ease the discomfort. However, her instincts told her something else was going on with her body.
“Fortunately I knew something still wasn’t right so I booked in for a scan when I returned to the UK,” she shared.
“On Thursday I was told I had colon cancer and in an instant my whole life changed.”
Tomorrow, the MAFS star will be undergoing surgery to remove a 5cm tumour in her colon – a tumour that if “had gone undetected for much longer would have killed me”.
“Despite this I feel incredibly blessed that it’s a cancer that is relatively easy to eradicate, I’m expected to make a full recovery though it’s a rough road ahead,” said Schilling, who has appeared on MAFS since it began in 2015.
“I also feel so lucky to have an incredible support network around me, both personally and professionally, my own family and my TV family have been amazing this past few days.”
The star will spend Christmas Day in hospital with her family after cancelling their plans to travel to Northern Ireland to spend the holidays with loved ones.
“It will be so tough to spend Xmas Day in hospital instead of being surrounded by family but getting rid of Terry (what I’ve named my tumour) will be the best present of all,” she wrote.
“I just wanted to finish by saying that if something doesn’t feel right, please, please don’t ignore it and if you don’t think the answers you have got are right, keep going until you do, it might just save your life.”
The life-changing news comes just three months after former MAFS expert Trisha Stratford died peacefully at her home, aged 72.
The New Zealand-born clinical neuropsychologist starred on the Nine dating program alongside Schilling from its debut in 2015 until her departure in 2020.
Originally published as Married at First Sight star Mel Schilling diagnosed with cancer
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