I had the pleasure of working with Mel three times, since meeting her first in January 2015. At the time I was working for a company in London making a documentary about families who had fallen out. I was at home watching Big Brother as was tweeting along.... and I spotted someone on Twitter had retweeted something I had written. It was Mel. I contacted her as she was talking about being a trans-issue advocate and asked her how her experience had been coming out to her family. It's not my place to go in to details, but suffice to say she had found it very difficult. I spent three days with her in Mel with Mark our cameraman. At one point we got stuck in snow on the M60 and I remember playing 20 questions to pass the time and arguing with Mel about whether Terry Wogan was British or Irish. Anyway... Mel was great; warm; funny; and with a wonderful story to share. Even when faced with abuse and ridicule she didn't seem to play the victim or even point fingers. When we next worked together it was for Tattoo Disasters. She wanted the 'Mars One' tattoo covering up and had a few laser sessions (she later decided to get the tattoo covered up... on another TV show of course!). Again, she was full of humour and fun. We stayed in touch and I always followed her career and advised her on some of her choices. I pleaded with her not to do the JK Show... and wasn't a fan of her Facebook live videos... but we always disagreed in friendly terms! Her lottery win was a massive surprise of course, and I genuinely could not have wished for anyone so deserving to have finally caught a break and be enjoying some good luck. The last time I'd seen her before the win, we were talking about retiring and she said that she thought she would work until her dying day. This January we worked on a project where Mel wanted to travel the world in places where she would not be welcome (as trans) and enjoy her new found wealth. I'm gutted that Mel didn't get longer to enjoy her happy ending. Cx
Claire Scollie :
16/05/2019
