Strictly Come Dancing's Annabel Croft says husband noticed 'funny' symptom before tragic cancer death

Strictly Come Dancing star Annabel Croft shared how her husband first noticed that something was wrong, just months before dying of cancer.

Reflecting on the emotional period in her life in the months before her husband passed away, Annabel told Gabby Logan of the moment that her late husband, Mel Coleman noticed something was wrong: "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'."

But, thinking little of her husband's symptoms at first, she shared how she initially wrote them off as nothing to worry about: "I immediately thought 'oh gosh', it must be indigestion or something like a cyst or whatever. It never dawned on me that it could be something so absolutely catastrophic."

After scans were carried out to try and determine what was causing Mel's discomfort, Annabel recalls how the experts delivered the worst news imaginable to Mel, as they confirmed that he was suffering with stage four cancer that had spread to multiple parts of his body.

Meanwhile, despite saying that it wasn't clear where Mel's cancer had began, earlier in the podcast, she said: "It started with colon cancer, but it could have been across everywhere at the same time. But it spread into the liver, it was spread into the kidneys, even possibly into the brain as well.

"But what he actually died of was sepsis and there was a perforation from one of the tumours. We'd gone on this flight to Portugal thinking he was going to get some sunshine and some respite from all of his treatment. I think maybe on that flight, it may have just swollen something and perforated one of the tumours."

Having first crossed paths back in 1987, the pair finally tied the knot six years later before going on to have three children together, Amber Rose, Lily and their son, Charlie.

After making a name for herself playing tennis, Annabel continued her association with the sport after her retirement working with the likes of Sky Sports and the BBC in their coverage of Wimbledon. But, more recently, she returned to our screens again as she competed in the 21st series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2023, finishing in fourth place with her dance partner, Johannes Radebe.