The cancer sufferer who's a faker

YOUNG mum Belle Gibson touched everyone with her inspiring story of fighting terminal illness with natural remedies - until this week when she admitted it was all made up

Belle Gibson's story won her an award and lucrative book dealXPOSURE

Belle Gibson's story won her an award and lucrative book deal

IF IT sounds too good to be true, it probably is. That's what they say, isn't it? But oh, how they wanted Belle Gibson's extraordinary story to be true! She was young, attractive and a single mother. Even her name seemed made for fame with its feminine twist on the name of another famous Australian.

And she had overcome brain cancer by shunning conventional treatments and following her self-devised regime of nutrition and alternative therapies.

She wrote a blog about it that turned into a money-spinning business, engagingly named TheWholePantry. The award-winning health app she launched was so popular that Apple chose it as one of the pre-installed apps in the new Apple Watch.

She published a cookery book that sold so well in Australia that Penguin were all set to launch it into the huge markets of the UK and the US, which could have earned her millions. By the beginning of this year, it was estimated that TheWholePantry had raised more than one million Australian dollars (£515,000) and Belle pledged every cent to charity.

Lastly, she revealed to her army of social media followers that her cancer had spread. "I am hurting," she posted on the social media site Instagram. But she was fighting on.

Alas it WAS too good to be true. The first cracks began appearing a few weeks ago and this week Gibson confessed that she had made the whole thing up. In an interview with the Australian Woman's Weekly magazine, the 23-year-old (even her age, originally thought to be 26, was a lie) admitted that she does not have cancer. She has never had cancer. "No, none of it was true," she said.

The backlash, unsurprisingly has been thunderous, from the medical profession to social media to cancer sufferers who had espoused Gibson's alternative regime.

I think my life has just got so many complexities...that it's just easier to assume I'm lying

Belle Gibson

One disillusioned fan wrote, "I bought your app. I bought your cookbook. I read about you. I watched you on TV shows. I followed you on Instagram. I rooted for you and felt sad for you when you posted about your cancer spreading. And now I am just appalled."

Another wrote: "People will have made choices on their treatment based on her advice. Her lie may have cost lives."

EQUALLY appalled are Penguin, who unfortunately had not thought to verify Gibson's story, and Apple who were meant to be launching the watch with Gibson's app this month.

The promised donations to charities have not materialised and even Gibson's friends are at a loss to explain how she could afford a beachside apartment in Melbourne, a BMW, first-class travel and £1,000 designer handbags.

So how did this young woman manage to fool so many of her fellow Australians who, after all, are not known for their gullibility?

According to Wikipedia Annabelle Natalie Gibson was born in October 1991 in Launceston, Tasmania, though the family moved to Brisbane. She dropped out of school at 16 and worked for a catering company, then moved to Perth where she "joined the skateboarding culture" and was active online. At 17 she moved to Melbourne and at 18 had a child.

In Gibson's version of her life story, she was running the home and caring for her brother from the age of five. As well as a mother with multiple sclerosis and an autistic brother, the family was "very dysfunctional". She told Woman's Weekly, "When I started school, my mum went, 'My daughter is grown up now.' I was walking to school on my own, making school lunches and cleaning the house. I didn't have any toys."

This has not been verified as Gibson won't name or give the whereabouts of any family members. Finding them may not be that easy either as she admits using several other identities.

Gibson first hit the public consciousness through her blog on Instagram. She claimed she had been told she had a malignant brain tumour in 2009 ("You're dying. You have six weeks. Four months tops" was allegedly how the doctor delivered the diagnosis) but after two months of chemo and radiotherapy, she embarked on the holistic treatment regime of Ayurvedic medicine, oxygen therapy and eating wholefoods, which she claimed had halted her cancer.

In August 2013, Gibson launched TheWholePantry app. It achieved more than 300,000 downloads and she signed a deal to produce her cookery book, published last autumn. She received Cosmopolitan Australia's 2014 Fun, Fearless, Female social media award. Then, last July she posted the heartbreaking news that her cancer had spread to her liver, uterus, spleen and blood.

THE trouble was, she just didn't look ill. In February, Fairfax Media began to look more closely at Belle Gibson. Journalist Beau Donelly said: "We were alerted by a source who believed she was faking her illness. Her story sounded too good to be true." It was also full of holes.

There were no specifics about her childhood or fundraising, no doctors confirming her diagnosis. She claimed she had undergone heart surgery yet had no scars. When pressed on the return of her cancer, Gibson was evasive, then broke down, saying she had been misdiagnosed by a "Dr Phil".

Gibson launched the WholePantry app in August 2013INSTAGRAM

Gibson launched the WholePantry app in August 2013

Turning their attention to her philanthropy, the journalists discovered more anomalies. At least five charities supposedly supported by Gibson have not received a penny. Four organisations were not even aware that their names were linked to fundraising events.

The Melbourne-based charity One Girl, named as a beneficiary of an "exclusive" fundraiser received £515 a year later and only after probing by journalists. Of the £154,000 TheWholePantry supposedly donated, only £3,600 could be confirmed, with Gibson admitting her company finances were a "mess".

Gibson went to ground, surfacing this week with her astonishing confession. "I am still jumping between what I think I know and what is reality. I think my life has just got so many complexities...that it's just easier to assume I'm lying," she offered by way of explanation. She did not go as far as apologising, however.

Penguin has withdrawn her book. Apple dropped her app. TheWholePantry is in disarray and even her friends are distancing themselves. Though the police do not intend to prosecute her the Consumer Affairs department of the state of Victoria are to investigate her businesses, none of which is lawfully registered as a fund-raising body.

Meanwhile Gibson has got rid of both the BMW (it was rented) and the beachside apartment and had a stern talking-to from her "supportive but obviously very devastated" partner Clive Rothwell. Many will no doubt feel she deserves far more.

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