An evangelist who claimed to heal severe illnesses – including terminal cancers – through prayer secretly faced his own health battle for years prior to his death.
John Mellor, who included Down syndrome, mental illnesses and blindness among the conditions he ‘cured’, died in March at the age of 67.
At the time, his wife Julie told his followers that Mellor, the top evangelist in John Mellor Ministries, died from a ‘sudden illness’.
However, a source close to the Mellor family told Daily Mail Australia that Mr Mellor, 67, had been diagnosed with bowel cancer sometime in late 2019 or early 2020.
The source revealed Mellor was for some time claiming to heal the sick while he received chemotherapy treatment.
‘In around January 2020, John most definitely had bowel cancer… and in late December 2021 he was definitely undergoing chemotherapy,’ the source said.
The source claimed Mellor’s cancer diagnosis was hidden from the public so his followers would remain firm in the belief of his abilities to heal through prayer.
John Mellor (left), an internationally famous healing evangelist who claimed to heal afflictions through prayer, battled bowel cancer for years prior to his death
According to his wife Julie (right), John died of a ‘sudden illness’ on March 17. Mr Mellor had claimed he could heal serious afflictions such as cancers, Parkinson’s and Down’s syndrome
Despite regularly posting testimonials and prayers to his social media accounts, Mellor never revealed to his followers he was fighting cancer.
There were, however, some references to bowel cancer.
Mellor posted a video to social media in April 2022 commanding the bowel cancer cells of those watching to miraculously die.
According to the source, Mellor was ‘definitely’ undergoing chemotherapy at the time the video was posted.
The Mellor Ministries video caption noted that requests for Mellor to pray for healing bowel cancer had become ‘a common request lately’.
In the video, Mellor instructs viewers to place their hand on the part of their body where tumours are growing and virtually reach their hand out to him.
‘It’s like I’m in your living room, your car, wherever you are, I’m going to believe for the power of God to flow through your body,’ he told the viewers.
Touching his own stomach, Mellor says: ‘In the name of Jesus, I break bowel cancer right now, I command every tumour to shrink and disappear, I command every cancer cell to die.
‘And whether the bowel cancer has spread to the liver or lungs or anywhere I command those cancer tumours to disappear and shrink, go in Jesus’ name.’
He then prayed for the pain and hair-loss of chemotherapy to also ‘go in Jesus’ name’.
Other videos on Mellor’s social media accounts show him supposedly healing a baby of Down syndrome symptoms and having paraplegic followers walk again.
‘Maybe John did have some [healing] skills,’ the source said.
‘But then why can’t you make a public statement that you have bowel cancer yourself and be very open and transparent about what you’ve been through?’
A source close to the Mellors told Daily Mail Australia that Covid-19 lockdowns were used to hide his diagnosis so his followers would still believe he was a healer and not impact revenue
Mr Mellor is seen here offering spiritual healing to an elderly member of his congregation
Outside of Australia, John was also hired as a guest preacher at packed-out churches around the world because of his supposed healing abilities.
In announcing her husband’s death, Julie Mellor said the evangelist was ‘called to heaven way too soon’ and that he would be ‘having the time of his life with Jesus’.
‘I am devastated and still in shock and disbelief, as I know many of you will be too,’ she wrote on Facebook.
‘It was an honour and joy to be his wife and serve God with him. He was my best friend and the greatest companion. I am heartbroken.
‘John was the loveliest, kindest, most pure-hearted and fun-loving man and husband that ever lived.
‘Though John was a public figure, he and I are very private people. For the sake of John’s dignity and privacy, I choose not to share any details of John’s passing, so please don’t ask.’
Ms Mellor then reflected on her husband’s life as a minister, saying: ‘He’ll also be meeting the thousands of people who are in heaven thanks to his 47 years of tireless evangelism and ministry, since his salvation at the age of 20.’
The source claimed the ministry was able to keep Mellor’s cancer diagnosis a secret as Covid-19 lockdowns in place at the time already kept him from performing sermons.
‘They [the ministry] were concerned it was going to be leaked and it would affect their income,’ the source said.
Outside of Australia, John was also hired as a guest preacher at packed-out churches around the world because of his supposed healing abilities
Julie has taken over as head of John Mellor Ministries, claiming to heal followers of post-traumatic stress disorder and symptoms of Parkinson’s at a recent event in Port Macquarie
Mellor became interested healing while working as a missionary in a remote Indigenous community and coming in contact with a ‘witch doctor’.
According to his ministry’s website, ‘John prayed and fasted for 10 days a month for five months, and cried out to God to reveal himself in power to these people’.
Through his apparent healing of the community, Mellor gained the nickname ‘the missionary man who heals’.
Mellor started to garner attention after a ‘a flood of miracles’ occurred while he was in Wishaw, a small town outside of Glasgow, Scotland.
Since then, Mellor preached internationally and famously made a journalist for A Current Affair, Nick Poe, feel ‘a warm tingling sensation’ along his spine after he prayed to heal a neck injury the reporter had suffered from for 16 years.
Julie has since taken over as the leader of the church following John’s passing.
‘Having ministered by John’s side for 15 years as his wife, I will continue the ministry,’ Julie wrote.
At a recent event at Port Macquarie’s St Thomas’ Anglican Church, Julie claimed to have healed a woman of arthritis, pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
During the event, which closely resembled John’s sermons, Julie also claimed to have healed a man of symptoms related to Parkinson’s disease.
Julie will follow in John’s footsteps as an internationally in-demand guest preacher, conducting healing sermons in England and Switzerland in September, and the United States in October.
Daily Mail Australia contacted John Mellor Ministries and Julie Mellor for comment.
