Married at First Sight Australia expert Mel Schilling has revealed how her shock cancer diagnosis impacted the filming of the 11th season.
The 51-year-old took to Instagram on December 20 to reveal she’d recently been diagnosed with colon cancer and would be heading into surgery to have her tumour — nicknamed “Terry” — removed.
Mel later announced that her recent PET scan was “all clear” and the cancer hadn’t spread.
Speaking to Yahoo! Lifestyle ahead of MAFS 2024‘s January 29 premiere, the long-time expert said she originally thought her pain was “jet lag” while filming the show in late 2023.
“At the reunion dinner party, I was doubled over in pain, and then during the whole reunion shoot, I was just trying to smile through the pain and just get through it,” she explained.
“I didn’t know what it was, I thought it was jet lag, but I really did. I just thought, I’m working too hard, it’s the travel, I’m just not taking care of myself.”
She added: “I really didn’t think it was anything else.”
Admitting she can “barely remember” that day, Mel said it will be “really bizarre to watch it play out on screen”.
“It’s a little bit of a fuzzy memory now.”
Married at First Sight expert Mel Schilling gives an update on where her health stands today
Over three weeks after her operation, Mel said her recovery is going “really well”.
She’s even returned to work to film the new season of MAFS UK!
“I’m eating normally, I’ve started working out a little bit, I’ve even done some filming. So I am starting to feel kind of normal,” she revealed. “It’s just good to have that ‘Terry’ out of my body.
“I just felt instantly better as soon as he was gone, the little bastard.”
The expert will now undergo three months of chemotherapy, which she said will be a combination of infusions in the hospital and tablets at home.
Mel’s latest update comes after she shared that her cancer symptoms were akin to being in “labour”. She also confessed she knew something was wrong when she could not eat food on a flight to the UK.
“I consider myself a bit of a foodie, in fact,” Mel said on Instagram following her surgery. “Eating is my great pleasure in life, and so for me to be sitting on a plane being offered things like scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and champagne — all of my favourite things…
“And to be turning them down and thinking, ”I just don’t even want a cup of tea’, that was a warning sign for me.”
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