There’s no need to wish cancer on her; statistically speaking, cancer is what we all get if we don’t die of something else first. (I am NOT downplaying the tragedy and horror when it strikes people who are young, otherwise healthy, and/or beloved - merely stating that it’s out there, waiting for all of us if we live long enough.) When hers comes, it may not be a brain tumor - that would be too poetically just - but I confess to a morbid curiosity as to how she will handle the real diagnosis… and how the world will treat her when it comes.
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Ugh. I recently got involved in debating the merits of “Black Salve” in youtube comments (mistake #1, I know).
What’s unbelievable is the number of users who defend the quack cures, literally to the grave. Even doctors and RN’s who attest to the number of people they see killed or maimed by the cures don’t sway them. When faced with credible sources, it’s always a case of “No True Scotsman”.
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You know, I’d never wish cancer on anyone, even in trolling, but in this case, she personally profited by spreading false information that caused other people to get sicker than they needed to get and perhaps even die as a result (not to mention caused grief to even the cancer sufferers who ignored her by having to put up with other people shoveling this bullshit their way). Wishing on her the very thing she falsely claimed to have almost seems appropriate.
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Speaking as a Victorian I doubt that would work. It costs a lot of money to sue somebody and there is a significant risk of losing. Few cancer patients (or their families) are going to want to take that risk.
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In the comments section of one of the earlier Australian articles about her a man talks about how his wife died of bowel cancer, and how she might well have lived had she chosen to conventional (or “actual”) medicine rather than using “natural” cures. That’s the real crime here - not the lying or the misuse of money given for charity, but the leading people away from those who might actually help them.
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Just when I thought it couldn’t get more revolting, I find this reaction from another snake-oiled huckster called KSENIA AVDULOVA (@breakfastcrmnls) - one of the people who helped Gibson with her scamming:
This weasel-worded, sickening apologia makes me want to scream. For that is all I can do seeing as comments have been disabled on that post (surprise surprise).
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Yup, Fuck Cancer and Fuck Belle Gibson. I had a malignant melanoma that had been around for some time (thanks for not diagnosing it in my twice a year checkup Dr. Nitwit). I finally insisted that the melanoma be removed, and sure enough malignant and hearty. I thought I was a goner, and the local surgeon was not optimistic. Here’s where the Belle Gibsons of the world come in; I could maybe not die, just eat carrots and groats. I’m pretty susceptible to the not die ing idea, and if it works I’ll do it. This was all happening pretty fast, but fortunately a friend strongly encouraged me to get a second opinion, and why not go to the Mayo Clinic? I went to the Mayo (I’m a major fan of this place, they are fantastic) and their Melanoma Study Group took me in hand. They told me what they were going to do, and did it. All Organic Steel Surgery. I was very lucky, there was no metastasis, so I guess live long and prosper. If I had relied on alternative cures, I would probably be dead.
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Unfortunately, I have become the local expert on lung cancer after my wife was diagnosed five years ago. Friends and friends of friends call me, a guy who got a D in biology, chemistry and physics wanting to know what they should do. This woman is the worst. To pretend you have this disease is just unimaginable. I mean I stop people I see smoking and tell them battling lung cancer is worse than any scare tactics you see on a pack of cigarettes. My wife went through the whole deal. Surgery, chemo and radiation. I watched infection ooze out of her when her immune system crashed during chemo. But, rather than listen to the vitamin experts like her sister about a dozen years ago, she is still alive. The other night, I received a call from the mother of a girl I’d gone to grade school with. Her son had lung cancer. She wanted to know what to do. She was an inch away from selling everything she owned to move him to Colorado where someone was pumping a marijuana cure. You know, the one that the government doesn’t want you to know about. I urged her to stay the course. Her son was demanding they sell out and save his life. A week later, he tested genetically positive for a new miracle drug for lung cancer. Cancer will do a lot of things to you. Cause your hair to fall out. Kill your kidneys. It also sometimes makes you suspend reality. I’m not sure if caning is still allowed in Australia, if not, maybe they could bring it back for her.
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as a survivor, i truly detest ANYONE offering false cures, false stories and false hopes to truly scared desperate people trying to get better.
fuck everything about Belle
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If she really is mentally ill as theorized, why should she be? I get Xeni Jardin’s emotional reaction to this news about Gibson, but I can’t see how imprisoning someone for mental illness is a good idea. (Seems to be what we do here in the US of A often enough, and the results ain’t pretty.)
I don’t know that Gibson is or isn’t mentally ill. For all I know she’s lying now just as she was lying then and is just another run of the mill fraudster making an excuse. But if she is ill, I wouldn’t be for prosecution. And if she is just another fraudster I’d be for throwing the book at her.
She is not mentally ill. She is a narcissist. Nothing ill about it. She got caught. She wont stop lying and she doesnt care about anyone other than herself.
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She’s not? Well, thank you, doctor! Appreciate your completely definite and no doubt accurate internet diagnosis. Is she just a lying scam artist? She may well be. Probably is. But maybe…just maybe…she is in fact mentally ill.
I’m actually more offended by the mis-use of “begs the question” in the first paragraph of the story in Australian Women’s Weekly.
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If she convinced one person to try her magic cure instead of real medicine, she should be liable for all the unnecessary suffering and death that resulted.
This woman just sounds like a fraudster, a thief. I, for one, was not confused at all about Xeni’s post. There are just many disgusting aspects of this woman.
Also disgusting: I saw an ad recently for Cancer Centers of America where they tout faith: http://www.cancercenter.com/faith/embracing-faith. Terrible.
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No no, this time she’ll herself tell you that she’s full of shit.
New avatar?
PS: kinda surprising that people in this thread want her to go to jail for this, and unsurprising (but depressing) that her customers believed the stories and bullshit of some 23 year old nobody over the knowledge and research of health and nutrition professionals. I wouldn’t say they deserve to be bilked out of their money but c’mon people: if it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably not.
@LDoBe Nope we’ve got fair(ish) laws here. Seems like fraud would be your best bet for prosecution and even then it would probably be hard to seek damages because you’d have to prove them. A class action could also work to recoup money spent on apps but, as few people know, if you persist with the various app stores you can almost always get a refund out of them. My solution is just to help myself in the first place 
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Seems to me that she and her non-profit are exactly the type of criminal enterprise the RICO act was designed to address.
Nothing hurts d-bags like Ms Belle more than having their money and property taken away from them by force - especially when its a prosecutor’s warm-up act to a trail.
Does Australia have a RICO law? I wouldn’t presume they do just because the US does, but I’d still expect that there’s something roughly equivalent.
Does @SmashMartian or some other Aussie know about this?
Seizure of goods and assets as the result of a fraud conviction? It does happen.
There was a guy recently who ripped off $16million from QLD health that had the goods and assets seized and auctioned and the proceeds returned to the health dept.
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