An evangelist who claimed to cure serious illnesses, including terminal cancer, through prayer secretly faced his own health battle for years before his death.
John Mellor, who listed Down syndrome, mental illness and blindness among the conditions he ‘cured’, died in March at the age of 67.
At the time, his wife Julie told her followers that Mellor, the chief evangelist for John Mellor Ministries, died of a “sudden illness.”
However, a source close to the Mellor family told Daily Mail Australia that Mellor, 67, had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in late 2019 or early 2020.
The source revealed that Mellor for some time claimed to heal the sick while undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
“Around January 2020, John definitely had bowel cancer…and at the end of December 2021 he was definitely undergoing chemotherapy,” the source said.
The source claimed that Mellor’s cancer diagnosis was withheld from the public so that his followers would remain steadfast in their belief in his abilities to heal through prayer.
John Mellor (left), an internationally renowned healing evangelist who claimed to heal afflictions through prayer, battled bowel cancer for years before his death.
According to his wife Julie (right), John died of a “sudden illness” on March 17. Mellor had claimed that he could cure serious illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson’s, and Down’s syndrome.
Despite regularly posting testimonials and prayers on her social media accounts, Mellor never revealed to her followers that she was battling cancer.
However, there were some references to colon cancer.
Mellor posted a video on social media in April 2022 ordering the bowel cancer cells they watched to die miraculously.
According to the source, Mellor was “definitely” receiving chemotherapy at the time the video was posted.
The Mellor Ministries video caption noted that Mellor’s requests to pray for healing from bowel cancer had become “a common request of late.”
In the video, Mellor instructs viewers to place their hand on the part of his body where the tumors are growing and to virtually reach out to him.
“It’s like if I’m in your living room, your car, wherever you are, I’m going to believe that the power of God will flow through your body,” he told viewers.
Touching his stomach, Mellor says, ‘In the name of Jesus, I break bowel cancer right now, I command every tumor to shrink and disappear, I command every cancer cell to die.
“And whether the bowel cancer has spread to the liver, lungs, or anywhere, I command those cancerous growths to go away and shrink, go in Jesus’ name.”
She then prayed for the pain and hair loss from chemotherapy to also ‘go in the name of Jesus’.
Other videos on Mellor’s social media accounts show him allegedly curing a baby with Down syndrome symptoms and making his paraplegic followers walk again.
‘Maybe John had some [healing] skills,” the source said.
‘But then why can’t you make a public statement that you have colon cancer yourself and be very open and transparent about what happened?’
A source close to the Mellors told Daily Mail Australia that the Covid-19 lockdowns were used to hide his diagnosis so his followers would still believe he was a healer and not affect income.
Mr. Mellor is seen here offering spiritual healing to an elderly member of his congregation.
Outside of Australia, John was also booked as a guest speaker at packed churches around the world due to his reputed healing abilities.
Announcing her husband’s death, Julie Mellor said the evangelist was “called to heaven 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 honor and a joy to be his wife and to serve God with him. He was my best friend and best partner. I’m heartbroken.
‘John was the most charming, kind, pure-hearted and fun-loving man and husband who ever lived.
“Although John was a public figure, he and I are very private people. For the sake of John’s dignity and privacy, he chooses not to share any details of his passing, so please don’t ask.”
Ms. Mellor then reflected on her husband’s life as a minister, saying, “He will also be reunited with the thousands who are in heaven through 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 secret as the Covid-19 lockdowns in place at the time already prevented him from giving sermons.
‘They [the ministry] they were worried it would leak out and affect their income,’ the source said.
Outside of Australia, John was also booked as a guest speaker at packed churches around the world due to his reputed healing abilities.
Julie took over as director of John Mellor Ministries and claimed to cure followers of PTSD and Parkinson’s disease symptoms at a recent event in Port Macquarie.
Mellor became interested in healing while working as a missionary in a remote Indian community and came into contact with a “witch doctor.”
According to his ministry’s website, “John prayed and fasted for 10 days a month for five months, crying out to God to reveal himself with power to these people.”
Through his apparent healing of the community, Mellor earned the nickname “the missionary who heals.”
Mellor began to attract attention after a ‘flood of miracles’ occurred while he was in Wishaw, a small town on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland.
Mellor has since preached internationally, causing A Current Affair reporter Nick Poe to feel “a warm tingling sensation” down his spine after praying to heal a neck injury the reporter had suffered for 16 years. .
Julie has since taken over as the church’s leader after John’s passing.
“Having ministered alongside John for 15 years as his wife, I will continue to minister,” Julie wrote.
At a recent event at St Thomas Anglican Church in Port Macquarie, Julie claimed to have cured a woman of arthritis, pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
During the event, which closely resembled John’s sermons, Julie also claimed to have cured a man of symptoms related to Parkinson’s disease.
Julie will follow in John’s footsteps as an internationally sought after guest speaker, leading healing sermons in England and Switzerland in September, and in the United States in October.
Daily Mail Australia contacted John Mellor Ministries and Julie Mellor for comment.
