MAFS star Mel Schilling home for Christmas after cancer surgery

Mel Schilling has said she will be home to celebrate Christmas Day with her family, after surgery to remove a cancerous tumour in her colon.

The Married At First Sight (MAFS) dating coach, 51, announced her diagnosis last week and had thought she would spend the day in Kingston Hospital, south-west London.

In an Sunday Instagram post, Schilling wrote “Driving home for Christmas”, with a photo of her husband Gareth and eight-year-old daughter Madison wearing Christmas jumpers.

Schilling said her “whole life changed” after she was diagnosed with colon cancer.

While filming in Australia, she had started to develop “severe stomach cramps on set” and visited her GP in Sydney, who put it down to constipation and gave her some laxatives, according the reality star.

“Fortunately I knew something still wasn’t right so I booked in for a scan when I returned to the UK,” she said.

If the 5cm tumour had gone undetected for much longer it would have killed her, she also said.

On Friday she wrote on Instagram that keyhole surgery to remove her tumour had gone well.

She is one of three relationship experts on the UK version of E4’s hit show MAFS, in which strangers tie the knot.

The psychologist has been a part of the MAFS cast since 2016, first in her home country, Australia, and later on the UK version of the show.