Belle Gibson’s scam, the influencer who pretended to be healed by cancer just to make money

Belle Gibson, or “The woman who deceived the world”as Beau Donelly and Tuscan Nick were defined in their book, the two Australian journalists who first exploded it, was one of the first influencers To discover the Instagram potential, when the term “influencer” still existed. It was the 2013 When beautiful, a twenty -two year old Australian, began to build his own Online Empirean empire made of detox smoothieschia seeds, berries and many lies. The greatest: that of having had an incurable brain cancer And to be healed thanks to the vegetarian food style and greet you developed. A diet that had accompanied with unrecognized medical therapies.

“This is an almost true story based on a lie” It is, not surprisingly, the premise of “Apple Cider Vinegar”the new Netflix series, freely inspired by the book of the two Australian journalists, who tells the history of the ascent and the collapse of the Gibson Empire, By weaving with that, equally true, of another young woman. The second is the story of Milla Blake – Alter Ego by Jessica Aincough – she also finished at the center of numerous controversies for having promoted Gerson therapy on social networks, a nutritional program – not recognized at a medical level – against tumors and other diseases, the same sponsored by Belle. But with an important difference: Milla (or rather Jessica) was really sick of cancer, Gibson no.

Who is beautiful Gibson

Gibson’s real success, also known on social networks such as Healing Bellebegins in 2013 when the girl decides to launch one of the first apps in the world dedicated to nutrition and well -being, The Whole Pantry. In a very short time the app becomes a coincidence: only in the first month it is downloaded about 200,000 times and it is the most voted food and drinks app on the 2013 Apple Store. The Gibson company thus earns in a short time many money. According to Time, Gibson would have invoiced half a million dollars in less than two years with the Whole Pantry brand.

In this app, the influencer, now recognized by the whole world as a wellness guru, proposes a collection of vegan diets, which would soon be merged into the homonymous book published by Penguin Books in 2014. Elle Australia defines it “The Most Inspiring Woman You’ve Met This Year”.

Success as a wellness guru

Needless to deny it, a large part of Gibson’s success is due to the history of his life: the woman says she survived a Eighteen stadium brain cancerthanks only to its awareness on the power of nutrition. It also tells it in the preface of his book, still readable on several sites, although it has obviously been withdrawn from trade. Here Gibson says he received The diagnosis in 2009at the age of 20, after several visits in which the doctors had diminished his malaise – he speaks of doctors who prescribe them antidepressants or they tell her to take a moment of break from too much work – despite she heard that “Something wasn’t working well”.

Then the diagnosis, moreover after a stroke at work, also in the form: “You have brain cancerBeautiful. You are dyingyou remain six weeks, four months at most, “writes the woman in the book, where he promises to reveal everything he learned about “Go back to the origins and what it means to be really nourished”.

The lies on cancer

Belle’s success is to the stars, but his stories about his illness – indeed his diseases – begin to creak. After some time it gives the news that the Cancer is backthis time to spleen, blood, uterus, liver and kidney. Then he says he was operated on the heart and that he was almost dead during the intervention. Nevertheless, There is no report, no scar that you feel the things he says.

But to betray Belle Gibson are the fundraiser’s collections promoted among your followers and that in theory they should have been intended for charity bodies in favor of cancer patients. But, as the two Australian journalists on the Syding Morning Herald reconstruct, the accounts do not return: many of that money never came to their destination. Some time later, in March 20215, Elle Australia publishes an anonymous letter that defines the woman a serial liar and invents the newspaper not to believe in anything he tells, including the history of his illness. Other people are added to the chorus of suspicions and accusations.

In 2015 Gibson confesses to everything invented And that he has never been ill with cancer. A few years later, in 2017, she was sentenced by the court of Melbourne to pay a fine of over $ 400,000.

The dark side of social networks

In addition to the fact of having invented his life from scratchBelle Gibson has been criticized above all for spreading theFalse Normations on topics related to health and consciously induced potentially sick people to put their trust in her or in unofficial and therefore not sure methods rather than in the official medicineputting their lives at risk. But Belle Gibson also spread Fake news medical news On other topics: for example, on social media the woman would have connected his tumors to a vaccine Against cervix cancer and has promoted the consumption of unplugated raw milk, instead known to be a potential source of many pathogens, unless it is sold in certain contexts regulated by law.

When the social media were practically at their dawn, Belle Gibson showed it one of their worst sidesthe same that we will have learned to know well during the pandemic, that of conspiracy and medical denial, made of fake news, No-vaxinformation without any scientific foundation passed off as real, in the worst cases with profit, and capable of playing everywhere, fueled by the most basic human emotion And for this reason potentially stronger than any scientific evidence: the fear.