On her Instagram and Facebook account, Belle Gibson, 26 and a single mother, claimed that she was diagnosed to have a malignant brain cancer. She also claimed that she forgo conventional cancer treatment and opted for cancer self-treatment. Her story puts her on the internet limelight with almost 200 thousand followers at her Instagram account @Healing_Belle.
Gibson was hired as consultant of Apple Watch for her The Whole Pantry App and Penguin publishes her cookbook titled "The Whole Pantry," Yahoo News reported.
The author made claims that 25 percent of the profit on the sales of her book and apps amounting to 300 thousand Australian Dollars was donated to local charities and she has also run fund raising campaigns for local charities, however, Fairfax Media reported that she did not give the purported donation. And further reported that the local charities allegedly claimed as recipients have no records of such donations.
The Australian Media reported that her claim is fake and a frenzied social media debate ensued. Fans and supporters defended her while several others accused her of embezzlement and lying.
A Melbourne neurosurgeon Andrew Kaye told the Sunday Morning Herald that there are very few cases out of thousand cancer cases that have a spontaneous cancer cell regression. He said, "I wouldn't believe any of this unless I saw the pathology report with my own eyes and the pathology itself." Thereby creating more doubts about Belle's claimed cancer diagnosis and her healing.
Whether there is truth to her claim or not, social media debates continue. Even police has stepped in to investigate and visited her to her house, however, there was no police report that was made public. Belle Gibson left Australia, according to the Daily Mail and could not be located. Her Instagram account was changed from public into private.