I was diagnosed with breast cancer a little over 8 years ago.  I had surgery, I went through treatment, and have been lucky so far to survive. Other friends have not been so lucky with breast and other cancers.

I was also lucky that  although honestly it took me a few years to pay off my treatment bills, that I was able to do it.  Cancer is expensive. I was lucky, but it also was not easy every month making payments until the debt was finally gone.

I have donated to cancer fundraisers on occasion. Not every one that crosses my path, but when I know someone does need help, I try to pay it forward.  I did it recently for a woman who is not a friend, but I knew she went through an actual hideous double mastectomy at a hospital I wouldn’t have a hangnail in, and her husband has had a recent surgery and they have kids and actually need the help.

But this item that broke in the news? HOLY CRAP! ANOTHER CANCER FAKER!

Woman Accused of Lying About Cancer to Scam GoFundMe and Facebook Donors Out of More Than $10K
Jessica Cornell Smith, 32, of Uwchlan Township, was arrested Monday and charged with theft by deception-false impression and receiving stolen property
NBC10 Philadelphia By David Chang and Deanna Durante
Published Nov 4, 2019 at 5:24 PM | Updated 2 hours ago

A Chester County, Pennsylvania, woman is accused of pretending to have cancer, impersonating a doctor and nurse and lying about her own father dying in an elaborate scheme to steal thousands of dollars from donors on GoFundMe and Facebook.

Jessica Cornell Smith, 32, of Uwchlan Township, was arrested Monday and charged with theft by deception-false impression and receiving stolen property.

Earlier in the year, Smith created a GoFundMe and Facebook page claiming she was diagnosed with Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer (HNPCC) and was receiving treatment from oncology specialists at the “Abraham Cancer Center” at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The actual name of the facility is the Abramson Cancer Center.

Through her pages, Smith claimed she was facing tremendous medical bills, travel costs and other payments related to child care and missed work. She also said her insurance coverage held a $15,000 deductible.

I mean freaking for real???

I went and pulled the deactivated Go Fund Me  Love the Galmour Kitty fake cancer photos:

Despicable.

Utterly despicable.

I want to know who helped her fake the chemo lounge photos?

Now I want to give a shout out to citizen journalists from The Ever Evolving Truth.  Because given what I am checking out, they helped expose this.

These True Crime citizen journalists have podcast after podcast on this grifter.

But this is a story that will keep all media and citizen journalists busy for a while. Because what about the stuff covered by Brian Hickey in Philly Voice? Astounding:

MARCH 11, 2019 (ARTICLE 1) Her mission: convince more women to give powerlifting a try
After countless health issues, a male-dominated sport helped Jessica Smith get and stay in shape
BY BRIAN HICKEY
PhillyVoice Contributor

AUGUST 20, 2019 (ARTICLE 2) WMMR calls powerlifting contest billed as Campout for Hunger fundraiser a ‘fraud’
Organizer under fire after radio station and Xfinity Live deny any knowledge of canceled event as she refuses to give refunds
BY BRIAN HICKEY
PhillyVoice Contributor

And OMG this:

I am appalled.  Not sure if the photo of the MRI machine is from Penn Medicine at Exton is real or not but Penn Medicine in Exton? I go there sometimes for scans, MRIs, and mammograms.  If she was there how did she fake it? As someone who is alive because of Penn Medicine, trust me their forms have forms. And you have to show ID and all sorts of stuff all of the time.

Jesus.  How do people do things like this? And she has kids? How do people get this way? Do they just suddenly wake up with the idea of scamming people?

Here is the Inquirer with some other details of this cancer grifter/scammer:

Philadelphia Inquirer: Chester County woman charged with faking cancer in $10K fund-raising scam
by Aubrey Whelan, Updated: November 5, 2019- 12:43 PM

A Chester Springs woman has been charged with netting more than $10,000 in a fund-raising scam in which she falsely claimed she had cancer and needed money.

In a criminal complaint, Uwchlan Township Police detectives laid out a months-long investigation of increasingly escalating lies that ended in the arrest of Jessica Ann Smith, 31, who was arraigned Monday on charges of receiving stolen property and theft by deception….Smith’s husband, Robert Smith, filed his own report with Uwchlan police, according to the criminal complaint. He told police that his wife was raising money online for help with a cancer diagnosis that didn’t exist. The author of the GoFundMe page wrote that she was facing “tremendous medical bills, travel costs, paying for the care of her children and missed work,” according to the complaint….But Smith’s husband said he had no medical or insurance records showing that his wife had been treated for cancer. He did, however, tell police that he had overheard his wife on the phone with her employer, Marco Protection Systems in Downingtown, pretending to be a nurse at Penn Medicine calling to say she needed time off from work because she was recovering from cancer treatment.

The balls on this woman. There is a special place in hell for cancer fakers. And they have no idea what it is to truly fight cancer let alone go through treatment.  They have no idea how this disease affects the friends and family of those affected.

Sign me gobsmacked . Thank you to those chasing this story (especially the citizen journalists), which has now even made the Daily Mail a UK publication.