Pop Music Singer. Born in Hackney, in East London, she formed the pop music singing duo “Mel and Kim” with her older sister Kim Appleby. They recorded two full length releases in the late 1980s, and had four hit singles, one of which, “Respectable”, reached Number One in the popular music charts. Diagnosed with cancer in 1988, she died at age 23 two years later from pneumonia, which proved fatal because her chemotherapy weakened her immune system. Cause of death: Cancer