Married at First Sight star says cancer has spread

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Kathryn Armstrong

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BBC

Mel Schilling was diagnosed with bowel cancer more than two years ago

Married at First Sight (Mafs) dating coach Mel Schilling says she does not know how long she has left to live after revealing her cancer has spread to her brain.

Schilling, 54, has been a part of the cast of the reality TV show since 2016, revealed she was diagnosed with colon cancer in December 2023.

However, she wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday that the cancer had later spread to her lungs and now the left side of her brain.

“Despite subsequent radiotherapy sessions, my oncology team have now told me there is nothing further they can do,” she wrote.

“My light is starting to fade - and quickly.”

Schilling said that since her original diagnosis, she had undergone 16 rounds of chemotherapy while still filming Mafs.

She had also been told she was eligible for a “groundbreaking clinical trial specific to my gene type”, which was due to start this month but that she began experiencing “blinding headaches and numbness down my right side” last Christmas.

“Simple tasks have become incredibly difficult,” Schilling wrote about her condition now, adding: “I honestly don’t know how long I have left, but I do know I will fight to my last breath.”

She urged people to get checked out if “something doesn’t feel right”.

Mel Schilling/Instagram

Schilling’s post on Instagram was accompanied with a photo of her family

Schilling also paid tribute to her family and posted a photo of herself with her husband and daughter.

She first joined Mafs in her home country of Australia and later on the UK version of the show, which airs on E4, but announced last month that she was stepping away from the Australian show to prioritise her family and health.

Channel 4 said in a statement on Thursday: "Mel has become a hugely valued and much-loved part of the Channel 4 family; to many of us she is a friend as well as a colleague.

“Her wisdom, warmth, humour and kindness shine through, and these qualities mean that everyone involved in MAFS, from the producers and contributors, to the viewers, love and respect her as much as we do.”

The channel announced that Mafs Australia expert John Aiken would step in to replace Schilling for the remainder of the latest UK series, which is currently being filmed.

CPL, the production company which makes the UK version of the dating show,

"Mel is greatly loved and respected by everyone at CPL, and our thoughts with her and her family as they face this profoundly difficult time.

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