Chiquit Brammall will be wearing pink every day this month for the National Breast Cancer Foundation
I have an unhealthy interest in cancer scammers – Belle Gibson, in particular. I can watch the Netflix dramatisation Apple Cider Vinegar and her 60 Minutes interview again and again, and still find them fascinating. As someone who’s had to truly sit through chemo infusions (they weren’t so bad), jab herself with pegfilgrastim the next day to rebuild her white blood cell count (the resulting bone pain was insane), and recover from a eight-and-a-half hour double surgery (double mastectomy and DIEP flap reconstruction) in the hot unpleasantness of Sydney summer, I did not understand how someone would want people to think they had cancer. But I enjoyed watching these shows centred on her as I recuperated between cycles.
Last month I had my free flu vaccine at the school I work at, and when the nurse asked which arm I wanted to be injected, I explained that it’d have to be the left as I had a lymph node removed in my right armpit. She said she survived breast cancer 12 years now, and that I’d be right too. She was extra lovely with me.
A couple of hours later, during my lunch break, I had my first appointment at the posh salon chain Tony & Guy, and Jasmine, the stylist who looked after my sparse head, was just as lovely. Through their Pink Scissors Program, Tony & Guy offers four free appointments to cancer patients. Suddenly I understood why Belle Gibson pretended she had cancer. People and establishments are generous and nicer to cancer patients. When Jasmine asked how I found out about the Pink Scissors Program, I was reminded about the free Look Good, Feel Better workshop I attended at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, where I met the lady who told me about it (we sat next to each other, and she was just about to start her chemo, whilst I was down to one cycle). The workshop was about skincare, makeup and hair (or wig) styling for those in treatment, because our skin would get more sensitive and we would lose hair, including eyebrows and eyelashes. The workshop included a large swag bag of skincare from brands like Clinique and Estee Lauder and makeup from Lancome. I imagine Belle Gibson and Amanda Riley would have loved that swag bag.
Amanda Riley is a Californian cancer scammer, who I came to know about on the Disney Plus series Scamanda. She documented her “cancer journey” on her blog, with photos and fundraisers. She even shaved her head to show her followers and donors that she was “losing” her hair in chemotherapy. Essentially she scammed her church and community into donating over US$100,000. She’s currently serving a five-year sentence in a Texas federal prison for her fraud.
And here I am, still contemplating which breast cancer fundraiser I have the guts to do. Can I wear pink all June? Or walk 100k? I’m pretty sure I can, but I don’t think I can ask people for money. How did Belle Gibson and Amanda Riley do it?
UPDATE: Watch me wear pink every day of June… and help me raise funds for the National Breast Cancer National Breast Cancer Foundation
Chiquit’s fundraiser is here