Mel Schilling is known for her warm, honest advice as a dating expert on Channel 4’s Married At First Sight. But away from the glamorous reality show, she has been battling colon cancer and tells OK! there have been times when she “could have gone to that dark place”.

The 52-year-old was diagnosed with the disease just before Christmas last year, having noticed changes while she was filming MAFS in Australia. “It was November when things really started to escalate. I was on set and I was doubled over in pain,” Mel remembered.

“I just kept putting it down to travel, I knew I was run down. Last year was probably the biggest year of my career – I knew I was exhausted so I just kept saying to myself, ‘That’s all it is, I’m overtired and jet-lagged.’

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As a lifestyle and features writer at OK! I pitched the idea to interview Mel Schilling to discuss her cancer diagnosis after she had publicly spoken about it in an Instagram post. Married At First Sight is popular among OK! readers so the interview would not only be beneficial to our audience but also create an exclusive focused on her cancer diagnosis and journey, which we hadn’t yet covered.

I contacted Mel’s representatives, asking for an interview with Mel about her cancer journey, which they agreed to. Due to the sensitivity of the topic and Mel’s right to her private life, I ensured that in my first initial email they knew it was an interview to discuss her cancer.

The interview was conducted with care and consideration, and I approached my questions with sensitivity. I asked Mel to explain how she was diagnosed, what led to the diagnosis and how she was feeling today. I ensured she only answered questions that she felt comfortable to and was sympathetic during the interview.

I took down accurate notes and quotes throughout the interview, ensuring all details were correct, including dates, diagnosis and names, for example.

When looking back through my quotes, I found that the line ‘taking one day at a time’ from Mel was a strong angle to approach the headline, and reflected how Mel was feeling accurately from our interview, while also indicating the seriousness of her cancer diagnosis. ‘Mel Schilling’ was used at the start of the headline for SEO purposes and 'cancer news’ was used at the end. Stating she has cancer without giving away what type of cancer it is was a good way to get people to click on the story, while keeping the headline short and snappy.

Full headline: Mel Schilling 'taking one day at a time' amid cancer news

IPSO considerations:

When it came to IPSO considerations, as stated above I ensured my reporting was accurate (clause 1) including quotes from Mel and information she provided. While Mel is entitled to respect of her private life, including physical and mental health (clause 2), we were free to report on her cancer diagnosis as she had openly spoken about it on her public Instagram page, putting the information out in the public domain. This initially, allowed us to approach Mel for an interview about her cancer.

The interview was conducted via a phone call while Mel was at home. If Mel had been in hospital at the time of the interview, I would have had to identify myself and obtain permission from a responsible executive at the hospital to interview Mel (clause 8).