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Australia Crime

Wellness App Author Lied About Cancer Diagnosis 256

Posted by timothy from the but-this-was-my-whole-health-plan dept.
Freshly Exhumed writes: Wellness advocate Belle Gibson, who translated her high profile as a cancer survivor into publishing success, has admitted her cancer diagnosis was not real. Ms Gibson, 23, who claimed to have healed terminal brain cancer by eating wholefoods, made the admission in an interview with the Australian Women's Weekly. The success of Gibson's book, The Whole Pantry, and her smartphone application, which advocates natural therapies, has been largely dependent on her high-profile as a cancer survivor. Sadly, we've seen this sort of behaviour before. It would seem that Belle Gibson has emulated Dr. Andrew Wakefield in knowingly decieving the public in ways that could possibly be dangerous to the health of believers.
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Wellness App Author Lied About Cancer Diagnosis More

Wellness App Author Lied About Cancer Diagnosis

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  • Wait. A person who made dubious claims that had no scientific backing to them was actually lying? What next? Water is wet?!!

    I think pretty much everyone but the nutjob, true believers in psuedo-science knew all along that this woman was lying.

    • No, This Is Important for People to See (Score:5, Insightful)

      by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@gm a i l . com> on Thursday April 23, 2015 @08:36AM (#49536145) Journal

      Wait. A person who made dubious claims that had no scientific backing to them was actually lying? What next? Water is wet?!!

      I think pretty much everyone but the nutjob, true believers in psuedo-science knew all along that this woman was lying.

      So you're saying everyone knew she was lying about her charity donations as well [theage.com.au]? Or was it only the charities that knew that? From the article:

      The 26-year-old's popular recipe app, which costs $3.79, has been downloaded 300,000 times and is being developed as one of the first apps for the soon-to-be-released Apple Watch. Her debut cook book The Whole Pantry, published by Penguin in Australia last year, will soon hit shelves in the United States and Britain.

      So you're saying the 300,000 downloads are by people that knew they were downloading the app architected by a liar? And they were paying $3.79 to Apple and this liar for a recipe app that contain recipes that someone lied about helping her cure cancer? And you're saying that everyone at Apple that featured her app on the Apple Watch knew they were showing a snake oil app on their brand new shiny device? And that the people at Penguin did all their fact checking on any additional information this cookbook might contain about Belle Gibson's alleged cancer survival? And that everybody involved in these events know society's been parading around a fucking liar and rewarding her with cash money while she basically capitalizes on a horrendous disease that afflicts millions of people worldwide ... that she never had?

      No, this is not the same as "water is wet" and it needs to be shown that holistic medicine is temporarily propped up on a bed of anecdotal lies ... anybody who accepts it as the sole cure for their ailment is putting their health in the hands of such charlatans and quacks.

      • Well, I can't speak for the poster ... but I think you can reasonably conclude (and in fact should) that if someone comes out of the blue and claims to have a miracle cure for cancer, but no scientific evidence you should treat them with a degree of skepticism.

        That absolutely nobody ever confirmed a diagnosis of cancer tells me this was a fraud which was committed with the willing complicity of the media, her publisher, and everybody else who utterly failed to do anything other than take her on face value.

        M

        • Well, I can't speak for the poster ... but I think you can reasonably conclude (and in fact should) that if someone comes out of the blue and claims to have a miracle cure for cancer, but no scientific evidence you should treat them with a degree of skepticism.

          That absolutely nobody ever confirmed a diagnosis of cancer tells me this was a fraud which was committed with the willing complicity of the media, her publisher, and everybody else who utterly failed to do anything other than take her on face value.

          Maybe everyone didn't "know" ... but people sure as shit should have been saying "OK, how credible is this claim". Because, really, reading the news stories about this ... there was absolutely no basis to deem her claims credible.

          Just a media who wanted to show a story, and a bunch of people who lacked critical thinking skills who wanted to believe in miracles, or something which matched their existing world view.

          When people make big claims about their magic healing cure which has no scientific evidence or study ... they should not be taken at face value.

          Folks diagnosed with cancer are desperate people. Desperate people, sadly, just want to believe they can make every horrible boogeyman disease go away if they do the right thing, especially when receiving a grim outlook from conventional medical practitioners.

          Fact checking, logic, and realistic thinking are displaced by the grasping of straws.

          • Yes, but all of the people who weren't diagnosed with cancer who were reporting this, enabling her to commit this scale of fraud, and otherwise completely failing to do any degree of fact checking can't claim to be desperate people.

            The idiot journalists and book publishers who utterly failed to confirm a single detail of what she said ... those people are clowns who were just phoning it in by being too fucking lazy to say "can we at least confirm she had cancer?"

            The problem becomes when it becomes an intern

            • Yes, but all of the people who weren't diagnosed with cancer who were reporting this, enabling her to commit this scale of fraud, and otherwise completely failing to do any degree of fact checking can't claim to be desperate people.

              The problem is that we are so indoctrinated with the idea that our diseases are somehow "our fault" makes for a powerful blockage of any skepticism that might be shown. Its a powerful part of human nature, whch spans from Eating "right" to retribution by god for supposed sins.

              Fact checking for this sort of thing? Ain't gonna happen.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ranton ( 36917 )

        I think pretty much everyone but the nutjob, true believers in psuedo-science knew all along that this woman was lying.

        So you're saying the 300,000 downloads are by people that knew they were downloading the app architected by a liar? And they were paying $3.79 to Apple and this liar for a recipe app that contain recipes that someone lied about helping her cure cancer?

        No, he was clearly saying any person who downloaded the app based on her cancer story is a nutjob. He is saying that for any non-nutjob finding for sure she was lying is like finding out for sure that water is wet.

        I don't agree with the OP, as I think people can be naive without being a nutjob. I think its a good thing when stories like this get out because it may help people realize that unscientific medical claims should always be disregarded by the public. I make that last stipulation because I think its

        • No, he was clearly saying any person who downloaded the app based on her cancer story is a nutjob. He is saying that for any non-nutjob finding for sure she was lying is like finding out for sure that water is wet.

          I don't agree with the OP, as I think people can be naive without being a nutjob.

          I was probably being a bit harsh calling them all nutjobs, but yes, there was more to my sentence beyond the "everyone" part that eldavjohn didn't seem to read past.

        • When you're sick with an incurable or hard to cure disease you try every stupid thing you can think about to get better. At worst this "whole foods" scam will have negligible negative health impact so I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people tried it out just for the heck of it.

      • So you're saying everyone knew she was lying about her charity donations as well [theage.com.au]? Or was it only the charities that knew that? From the article:

        Everyone? No. But anyone who wasn't some doe-eyed true believer? Yes [theage.com.au] and Yes [essentialbaby.com.au].

        So you're saying the 300,000 downloads are by people that knew they were downloading the app architected by a liar? And they were paying $3.79 to Apple and this liar for a recipe app that contain recipes that someone lied about helping her cure cancer?

        Of course not. They are those psuedo-science nutjobs that I referred to. The same idiots who by crap from Kevin Trudeau, etc. Did you even bother to read everything I wrote or did you just read up to the "everyone" part of the sentence and then start foaming at the mouth?

      • "but the nutjob, true believers in psuedo-science" - those words mean something. Maybe try not just skipping over them?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbIII ( 701233 )

        And you're saying that everyone at Apple that featured her app on the Apple Watch knew they were showing a snake oil app on their brand new shiny device?

        That's very likely, it's just "business". The bar has been set low by respectable pharma companies selling herbal crap that they know does not work. People want snake oil they would say, so there's no harm in giving them snake oil.

      • And you're saying that everyone at Apple that featured her app on the Apple Watch knew they were showing a snake oil app on their brand new shiny device?

        The extra irony here is that it's quite likely that Steve Jobs is dead because of BS cancer treatments [wikipedia.org].

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ksheff ( 2406 )
        Was it at least a good recipe app or cookbook?

    • Re:Duuuh. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by LifesABeach ( 234436 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @08:38AM (#49536167) Homepage
      I'm reminded of a world personality that tried a similar therapy, sadly with Darwinian results; god bless Steve Jobs.

  • She said cancer was a fungus (Score:3)

    by sandbagger ( 654585 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @08:37AM (#49536157)

    That could be 'cured' via a special diet. First off, were that true, bicarbonate would be chemotherapy and secondly, this sounds to me like practicing medicine without a licence. The nutritional version of "crying fire in a movie crowded theatre" shouldn't get special exception simply because it's about nutrition and people wanting to do good things for their children and themselves by not eating crap. She hurt people by broadcasting this nonsense.

    Will she refund all of the money she made? Doubt it.

  • More from wiki... (Score:5, Informative)

    by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @08:38AM (#49536177)
    Seems this is just a case of fraud and greed rather than someone lying to promote a cause they truly believe in:

    "In early 2015, media scrutiny revealed that Gibson's cancer claims appear to have been fabricated, that she had lied about her age and other details of her personal life and history, and she had used campaign donations to lead a profligate and affluent lifestyle instead of delivering the money to charitable institutions as promised. There are claims she rented an expensive town house, leased an office suite and luxury car, underwent cosmetic dental procedures, and holidayed internationally from the proceeds of money purportedly raised for charity"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B... [wikipedia.org]
    • The Page History of her Wiki article makes for interesting reading - seems it's a bit of a work in progress as of right now...

    • Seems this is just a case of fraud and greed rather than someone lying to promote a cause they truly believe

      Same with Wakefield, who was planning to launch a diagnostic kit based on his MMR bullshit.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Holi ( 250190 )
      Sounds like someone should be going to jail.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      Fraud she certainly is, but the fraud was so transparent that clearly she's not right in her head.

      While the financial aspect of this makes her culpable, building an outrageous fraud around readily disprovable details of your personal biography is a very bad idea in the long run if you're simply a con artist. Doing that suggests that there are short term needs that trump simple financial considerations. Perhaps she felt she deserved more sympathy, nurturance and nurturance than she'd gotten in life. That's

  • I hope she is prosecuted (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @08:39AM (#49536185)
    Promoting quack cures for cancer is illegal in some countries like the UK. I hope it is in Australia too and that she is prosecuted for it.

    Separately, I wish all these self professed wellness "gurus" would jump off the nearest cliff and rid the world of their stupidity.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nemyst ( 1383049 )
      This is one of the few cases where I'll just go with "Yeah, throw her into jail for a solid 5-10 years, see how she likes the opulent lifestyle there."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Unfortunately, the cliff-jumping would do nothing for stupidity, as that is in the side of the believers and they would just find something else of comparable stupidity to believe in. It would rid the world of quite a bit of immoral scum though. Now, if all priests, politicians and CEOs could jump right behind, we might be getting somewhere...

  • Extraordinary claims ... (Score:3)

    by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @08:42AM (#49536207) Homepage

    It never ceases to amaze me how people want so badly to believe this crap that they just blindly accept some pretty extraordinary claims without proof.

    What utterly boggles the mind is absolutely nobody ever fact checked what she said ... not her cancer diagnosis, not her recovery, not a damned thing ... she basically said "I had cancer and now I don't, I cured it with unicorns and ponies and stuff I read on the interwebs, hey, why not buy my app?"

    Hell, she published a damned book, and nobody ever checked a single fact to make sure she wasn't lying.

    Sorry folks, but as usual, if someone makes an extraordinary claim, they better provide some evidence. Or you should be treating them like they're full of shit.

    From the anti-vaxers to the people who think the can cure cancer with healing crystals ... people should stop being so damned trusting and naive. Because generally the people making these claims are full of shit, stand to gain financially.

    Hell, the great quack Atkins never did a scrap of research despite selling tens of millions of books. Which means everything he ever said or the products which sprung up around him were more or less complete bullshit.

    i just don't understand why people are so willing to believe in quackery with zero evidence.

  • So, when do we prosecute? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @08:47AM (#49536255) Journal

    If a person claims authority on a subject based on falsified experiences isn't that pretty much the essential definition of FRAUD? (Particularly if money is made in the process.)

    If your advice is connected to peoples' actions that could have ramifications for their health and safety, then negligent manslaughter might be included as well.

    Look at it this way, if we started this, we'd at least have fewer celebrities talking about health issues, which is ultimately a net good.

  • Stolen valor, anyone? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Runaway1956 ( 1322357 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @08:48AM (#49536277) Homepage Journal

    There are men - and women too, I suppose - who hunt down people who claim to be veterans. Watched video just recently, some old Marine chased down some panhandler posing as a veteran, and made him take the Marine Corps jacket off. Told him if he EVER saw him with it on again, he was going to stomp the shit out of him.

    This woman deserves as much as any fake veteran has ever received at the hands of real veterans.

    • Big brave man picking on the weak (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dbIII ( 701233 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @09:12AM (#49536547)
      There's nothing valorous about picking on the homeless. Sure, it's fraud, but just treat any panhandling story like a circus act because there's a damned good reason to make it more appealing than accurate.

      • Re:Big brave man picking on the weak (Score:4)

        by dywolf ( 2673597 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @12:56PM (#49538951)

        Personally I hate those videos.
        And I am a Marine.

        Some may be legit, catching a guy getting preferential status fraudulently.
        But far too many are just overzealous-I'm-special-types chasing homeless people.

        its one thing for a guy to commit actual fraud, such as the guy Rep. Duckworth chewed out in front of a congressional committee for claiming "disabled veteran" status to get preferential bidding on government contracts, when he had never served a day in life.

        it's completely another to harass homeless folks (and even not so homeless folks) panhandling on the side of the road in clothes they got from a surplus store or clothing charity.

  • I don't want forgiveness.

    Good! You're not going to get any from me.

    I hate it when people say that. By refusing something they're implying that it has been offered to them, which reveals that they think that someone, somewhere, thinks they deserve it.

    I just think [speaking out] was the responsible thing.

    No, not deliberately lying about having and being cured of cancer was the responsible thing to do.

    But she said people needed to "draw a line in the sand where they still treat someone with some level of respect or humility".

    Sorry, but you've lost the right to dictate how much respect is due to you.

    Above anything, I would like people to say, 'Okay, she's human.

    I'd insist on a genetic test before believing even that, from her.

    She's obviously had a big life.

    Jesus... she's obviously got an ego inflated to

    • Above anything, I would like people to say, 'Okay, she's human.

      I'd insist on a genetic test before believing even that, from her.

      A genetic test would probably reveal that she is, in fact, a cancer. A walking, talking, lying, murdering, moneymaking malignant tumor.

      I think that qualifies as irony. "I don't have cancer, I AM cancer."

  • This sort of thing surfaces again and again, but hope or talk radio drivel means those who dare to question it get ignored over and over again.
  • If there's anything worthy of the death penalty, it's putting countless lives at risk by promoting fake medicine for personal gain. Wakefield would be right there on death row, too.

  • almost a stupid as Steve Jobs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by slashmydots ( 2189826 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @09:12AM (#49536551)
    Steve Jobs had the most treatable, survivable type of pancreatic cancer. He decided to do yoga and change his diet and do acupuncture instead of real treatments. Then he died. That's just how stupid some people are.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      He also bribed a doctor with a large property to jump the queue when it was too late, preventing someone else from living from the organ transplant. Nice chap that Jobs.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Steve Jobs had the most treatable, survivable type of pancreatic cancer. He decided to do yoga and change his diet and do acupuncture instead of real treatments. Then he died. That's just how stupid some people are.

      At least Jobs did it to himself. This lady is doing it to others to promote herself and make money.

      Jobs did the quackery based on his own beliefs and in the end, the only people he harmed was his family by his death - he didn't try to promote his lifestyle as good or it would cure cancer. What he

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @09:12AM (#49536553)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Media's role (Score:4, Insightful)

    by wired_parrot ( 768394 ) on Thursday April 23, 2015 @09:28AM (#49536705)

    That there are people who are willing to lie, even if their lies cause suffering to others, does not surprise me in the list.

    What concerns me is the media's role in all this, who for the most part accepted her story without any questions or fact checking. There were so many inconsistencies in her story that even the most basic background check should have exposed her. I'm shocked that no one tried to even talk to her doctors to follow up on her medical claims, for example. Or a quick phone call to the charities she claimed to be supporting would have also exposed her charitable claims.

    Her claims should never have been allowed to stand as long they did.

  • And for those who get their medical advice from Playboy's Playmate of the Year there is Jenny McCarthy, of whom Wikipedia reports [wikipedia.org]:

    "McCarthy's public presence and vocal activism on the vaccination-autism controversy, led, in 2008, to her being awarded the James Randi Educational Foundation's Pigasus Award, which is a tongue-in-cheek award granted for contributions to pseudoscience..."

    "McCarthy's claims that vaccines cause autism are not supported by any medical evidence, and the original paper by Andrew Wakefield that formed the basis for the claims...

    "In January 2011, McCarthy defended Wakefield..."

    So in honor of Ms. McCarthy, can we henceforth refer to populist medical quackery practiced by uncredentialed public attention seekers as "Jenny McCarthyism?"

    • Why the fuck did anyone listen to a playmate, of all the people on this planet, when it comes to advice on a medical subject? Do you go to your doctor for make up tips?

      It speaks volumes about the people who fall for that bunk when you consider whose advice they take on what subject.

  • You don't hear a snakeoil peddler admit that their crap is useless any day!

    It's almost as rare as a politician admitting being wrong.

  • It's somewhat impressive how a young woman was able to successfully fabricate/orchestrate this kind of business empire w/o first dropping out of some ivy league school. Her mea culpa sounds like a contrived effort at exculpation, i.e. a planned follow up since she knew she'd eventually get discovered. Did she have help?

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