Strictly’s Annabel Croft reflects on her late husband’s terminal cancer
Annabel Croft has reflected on her late husband’s terminal cancer diagnosis.
In May 2023, the former Strictly Come Dancing star was left grieving when her husband of 36 years, Mel Coleman, passed away at the age of 60. Mel had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer just eight weeks before his death.
Now, ahead of the second anniversary of her husband’s passing, Annabel has been recalling Mel’s devastating diagnosis.
Speaking on The Mid.Point Podcast with Gabby Logan, the 58-year-old described when Mel's health concerns began.
“We were making the bed one day and he just turned to me and he said, 'I haven't told you this Annabel, but I've got these funny pains in my side and they're just not going away, they're getting worse.’ It never dawned on me that it could be something so absolutely catastrophic,” Annabel began.
A few weeks after he underwent scans, Mel was given the heartbreaking news that his diagnosis was terminal.
“Mel had said to me in the [hospital] car park, 'I'm really worried about this meeting', and I said, 'Oh, don't worry about it – of course it's going to be fine. Maybe you just have a cyst that's going to have to be removed,’” Annabel stated.
“But the very first thing out of the surgeon's mouth was, 'I'm afraid your life expectancy's not very good.’ We both were spinning,” the tennis star recalled.
“On the last scans just before Mel died, it was showing a massive retraction of the cancer cells. So the work that they were doing was working and it's just so tragic that he died of sepsis,” Annabel confessed.
“He died with complete hope as to what he was doing. They'd already told him he had very little time left and that he had to get his papers in order,” she added.
Speaking about her ongoing grief, Annabel concluded: “I still haven't been able to clear his toothbrush. It's put into a little cabinet in the bathroom. But I cannot bring myself to throw it every time I look at it and pick it up. That's the one thing I just don't know when I can do that.”
