Married at First Sight expert Mel Schilling talks about colon cancer recovery on ITV's This Morning

Married at First Sight relationship expert Mel Schilling has spoken more about her Christmas experience with colon cancer.

The dating coach, who appears on both UK and Australian versions of the show, appeared on ITV's This Morning today (January 16) to share more about her colon cancer diagnosis, treatment and recovery. Schilling was in hospital last month to have a tumour removed, following a cancer diagnosis earlier in December.

Returning to work just two weeks later, Schilling sat on the This Morning sofa alongside Dr Nighat Arif in a bid to raise awareness about colon cancer and its symptoms.

She said: "I think I was ignoring the signs for such a long time, and this is not unusual. My energy had definitely dropped but I was having such incredible gut pain, literally doubled over and shouting in pain.

"I stopped going to the toilet as well, I wasn't sleeping - my whole digestive system just stopped and I put it down to all the international travel [to and from Australia]. I was thinking 'I've had a very busy year, I've just got to make it through December'. My body had other ideas.

"I saw a GP in Australia and was told it was constipation, but the tablets I was given didn't work. I flew back to the UK and things became a lot more serious. I couldn't even hold water down."

After seeking medical advice in the UK, Schilling had a CT scan within 24 hours and soon after received her colon cancer diagnosis. Her tumour, which she nicknamed Terry, was 5cm, or "roughly the size of a lime".

Schilling was in hospital late in December for the operation to have the tumour removed, but will still have chemotherapy too.

"It has absolutely been tough," she said. "But it was a reasonably early intervention. It was stage three cancer so still very serious, if I had waited maybe a month or so longer it could have been a very different story.

"I am starting to process it now. My tendency is just to keep going and keep working, but I know I need to process this all."