Who was Melissa Ede and how did she die? Transgender Jeremy Kyle star and lotto winner who passed away after winning £4m
MELISSA Ede, the colourful transgender rights campaigner who scooped £4million on a lottery scratchcard, has died.
But who was Melissa and how did the former taxi driver of Hull die?
Who was Melissa Ede?
In late December 2017, an “absolutely shocked” Melissa Ede – then a “cabbie from Hull” – phoned Camelot after realising she’d won the top prize on the £4million blue scratchcard from the National Lottery.
Struggling to get her head around the size of her win, she told Camelot she was “shaking”, and added, “you know, a thousand pounds, I’d be over the moon, but four million… is like, what?!”
Melissa, who has four children, had bought the winning £10 scratchcard while stopping for petrol on her way to work on December 30, 2017.
The transgender rights campaigner chucked in her job and, for the first time in 25 years, didn’t work over New Year.
When the National Lottery gave her a cheque on January 3, 2018, Melissa told reporters that she wanted to help others experiencing gender challenges, saying: “The transgender fight to where I am now has been a very difficult path.
“I received my [gender reassignment] operation almost seven years ago, and I am really proud of who I am today.”
Melissa later vowed not to give any of the cash to her four children, who she said disowned her after she began transitioning from a man twelve years ago.
The former cab driver was no stranger to fame, having a popular YouTube channel and an appearance on the Jeremy Kyle show when her daughter found out she was not her biological child.
She had been planning to write an autobiography about her journey to becoming a woman after undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 2011.
Just last month Melissa, 58, appeared in The Sun Online, joking that she was the Hull version of Katie Price after spending £50,000 on lip fillers and new teeth.
She forked out thousands to change her appearance with a series of cosmetic surgeries since her mammoth win.
Melissa joked: “I’m just looking younger by the day. I’m Hull’s very own Katie Price.”
In mid-April, Melissa told Hull Live that she intended getting more work done as her surgeon had done “an amazing job”.
She added: “I am going for a consultation next week about a facelift and nose job. I don’t think there is a budget for beauty.”
How and when did Melissa die?
Last week, Melissa spoke about experiencing “classic signs” of a heart attack, which left her struggling to breathe.
She told Hull Live that she woke up at about 5am on May 6 with “crushing chest pain” and was “hardly able to breathe”.
These symptoms lasted for about an hour before Melissa returned to bed.
When she experienced worsening pain and breathing problems later that day, she went to the Hull Royal Infirmary, where her heart was monitored, and she underwent blood tests.
The hospital told Melissa that she wasn’t having a heart attack, and that her lungs and heart were fine, but her symptoms could be attributed to anxiety, stress, or doing too much.
Two days later, she responded to “trolls” who cruelly posted death wishes.
Melissa filmed a Facebook Live video, in which she said: “People saying it is a shame I’m not dead. Well, I’ve got a message to you people; there’s nothing actually wrong with this ticker or my lungs.
“All been checked out so you’ve got me a while yet, so I’m sure that will make you all happy.
“Surely you have got more to think about in life than wishing death on other people?”
But today, Hull Live revealed that Melissa passed away at the weekend.
The website said that her fiancee, Rachel Nason, has confirmed that she died suddenly on the evening of Saturday, May 11.
Funeral arrangements are being made.
The cause of her death has not been established.