WEBVTT - The True Story Behind Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar 0:00:24.924 --> 0:00:30.604 You're listening to a Mother of mea podcast if you 0:00:30.684 --> 0:00:34.404 love extraordinary stories. M plus subscribers get early access to 0:00:34.484 --> 0:00:37.804 new episodes and seasons of the show. To listen to 0:00:37.884 --> 0:00:41.804 unreleased episodes right now, head to mammamea dot com dot 0:00:41.804 --> 0:00:46.284 a you forward slash M plus that's mp l us, 0:00:46.564 --> 0:00:48.844 or follow the link in the episode description. 0:00:49.524 --> 0:00:52.364 Hi Ert, I'm Grace Rufray, one of the podcast producers 0:00:52.364 --> 0:00:54.964 here at Mamma Mia. If you're listening to this you 0:00:55.044 --> 0:00:58.124 are a fan of extraordinary stories where you can immerse 0:00:58.164 --> 0:01:01.484 yourself in a different world, and this podcast does just 0:01:01.564 --> 0:01:04.524 that as we dig deeper into the truth and tragedy 0:01:04.644 --> 0:01:07.924 of some of the world's most remarkable women, from Ida 0:01:07.924 --> 0:01:11.964 butt Rose to Charlotte Dawson to Amanda Bin's Extraordinary lives 0:01:12.124 --> 0:01:16.644 told by extraordinary people. Just this week, Netflix released Apple 0:01:16.684 --> 0:01:19.964 Cider Vinegar, a new drama series inspired by one of 0:01:19.964 --> 0:01:24.284 Australia's most notorious scams, the Bell Gibson Story. While the 0:01:24.324 --> 0:01:27.684 Netflix the show dramatizes these events, we wanted to reshare 0:01:27.724 --> 0:01:30.884 with you the real investigation into how a young wellness 0:01:30.884 --> 0:01:34.124 blogger managed to convince hundreds of thousands of people she 0:01:34.204 --> 0:01:37.484 had terminal brain cancer when she didn't have cancer at all. 0:01:38.004 --> 0:01:41.324 Not only did Bell Gibson full her massive social media following, 0:01:41.564 --> 0:01:45.124 but she deceived major publishing houses, tech giants like Apple, 0:01:45.244 --> 0:01:48.564 and even her closest friends and family, all while making 0:01:48.764 --> 0:01:52.124 hundreds of thousands of dollars from her lines. The series 0:01:52.164 --> 0:01:54.844 is in three parts where the host, Emma Gillespie, spoke 0:01:54.884 --> 0:01:57.844 to people who sat across from Bell, people who were 0:01:57.844 --> 0:02:01.244 taken in by her deception, and these people who helped 0:02:01.284 --> 0:02:05.124 expose one of the biggest wellness industry scandals Australia has 0:02:05.204 --> 0:02:08.764 ever seen. This is the true story of Bell Gibson 0:02:08.884 --> 0:02:11.164 and how she pulled off a con that shook the 0:02:11.204 --> 0:02:14.044 foundations of the wellness industry and changed the way we 0:02:14.084 --> 0:02:17.564 think about social media influence forever. In Part one of 0:02:17.604 --> 0:02:19.924 the story, we look at the rise of Bell Gibson 0:02:20.204 --> 0:02:23.924 from tall tales in school drama classes to international acclaim 0:02:23.924 --> 0:02:28.284 and influence. How did Annabel Natalie Gibson become the pinup 0:02:28.324 --> 0:02:29.764 girl for the wellness movement. 0:02:33.484 --> 0:02:37.444 On a warm summer's day in twenty fourteen, some of 0:02:37.444 --> 0:02:43.044 Australia's most impressive women gathered at Woolemloo's famous Fingerwarfs on 0:02:43.204 --> 0:02:48.084 Sydney Harbor. They were there to celebrate Cosmopolitan Magazine's Fun 0:02:48.244 --> 0:02:53.764 Fearless Female Awards. Everything was sparkling, the water, the sky 0:02:54.484 --> 0:02:59.764 and the cocktails. Laughter echoed out across the wharf. A 0:02:59.804 --> 0:03:03.804 Samantha Armitage sipped and nibbled alongside Jodi and Asta just 0:03:03.884 --> 0:03:09.484 into Franklin, Lisa Wilkinson, Dummy Im, Hollywood it girl, Tara Reid, 0:03:09.924 --> 0:03:17.924 and Belle Gibson. If now that name brings with it 0:03:18.004 --> 0:03:22.404 the weighty infamy of a notorious scam, then it did not. 0:03:23.244 --> 0:03:26.324 Then Bell was there to be celebrated. 0:03:26.564 --> 0:03:33.004 So it's really disaster. When a social media I started 0:03:33.804 --> 0:03:39.884 posting about just fine day, it was interesting, but was encourigh. 0:03:39.564 --> 0:03:43.004 By friend's family because they knew that what I was 0:03:43.044 --> 0:03:44.044 sharing someone else. 0:03:43.884 --> 0:03:48.284 Interesting in She was what we now know as an influencer, 0:03:48.684 --> 0:03:52.484 a young entrepreneurial mother whose cookbook and iPhone app were 0:03:52.644 --> 0:03:56.604 a huge success, and she didn't look even a little 0:03:56.684 --> 0:04:00.644 bit out of place alongside Sydney's social a list, dressed 0:04:00.644 --> 0:04:05.364 in white, apparently glowing with health, despite the fact that 0:04:05.484 --> 0:04:08.604 a very large piece of her story and appeal was 0:04:08.644 --> 0:04:12.564 that she was far from healthy. Belle was going through 0:04:12.964 --> 0:04:17.204 a very public battle with a malignant brain tumor, just 0:04:17.364 --> 0:04:20.444 the latest, she claimed in a series of life threatening 0:04:20.484 --> 0:04:23.884 illnesses she'd been diagnosed with since she was a teenager. 0:04:24.564 --> 0:04:27.484 It was why she was there as Cosmo's editor at 0:04:27.484 --> 0:04:29.924 the time. Bronwyn McCann says, you wanted. 0:04:29.724 --> 0:04:30.244 To hug her. 0:04:30.444 --> 0:04:34.364 That's the best description. She had, this very sweet nature, 0:04:35.084 --> 0:04:39.324 very personable, shiny eyes where you just thought, gosh, you're 0:04:39.364 --> 0:04:41.084 going through so much and. 0:04:40.964 --> 0:04:41.484 Look at you. 0:04:41.444 --> 0:04:43.564 You're clever girl, that you've done all of this stuff 0:04:43.604 --> 0:04:47.324 with the app and Apple and everything, and even looking 0:04:47.364 --> 0:04:50.804 back now, not at all would you ever go there 0:04:50.844 --> 0:04:52.604 was something dodgy about her, Not at all. 0:04:52.804 --> 0:04:58.084 She was the sweetest, but there was something dodgy about 0:04:58.204 --> 0:05:15.644 Belle Gibson from Mamma Mia. Welcome to Extraordinary Stories, the 0:05:15.684 --> 0:05:18.844 podcast that takes you inside the stories you thought you knew, 0:05:19.284 --> 0:05:23.324 with the women who really do. I'm your host, Emma Gillespie. 0:05:23.644 --> 0:05:26.484 On this season of Extraordinary Stories, we're looking at the 0:05:26.524 --> 0:05:29.564 young woman who fooled not only her hundreds of thousands 0:05:29.564 --> 0:05:33.764 of followers, but the most prestigious book publishers in Australia, 0:05:33.924 --> 0:05:38.084 the tech giants of Silicon Valley, and even her family 0:05:38.124 --> 0:05:41.164 and friends into believing she was something she was not, 0:05:42.444 --> 0:05:47.284 sick and making lots of money as she did it. 0:05:47.844 --> 0:05:50.564 You're going to hear from the people she tricked. 0:05:50.644 --> 0:05:53.044 I'm getting sicker, I'm having chemo, I'm following all of 0:05:53.124 --> 0:05:56.524 what the doctors say to do, and I'm nearly dying. 0:05:56.684 --> 0:05:58.844 And she's living her best life. 0:05:58.924 --> 0:06:01.484 The people who sat face to face with her. 0:06:01.804 --> 0:06:05.404 When I met Bell Gibson, she was more concerned about 0:06:05.444 --> 0:06:08.604 the impact on herself. She knew to talk in a 0:06:08.644 --> 0:06:12.564 sympathetic way about the people that she'd met, but I 0:06:12.764 --> 0:06:15.884 think that no, she was most upset about the effect on. 0:06:15.884 --> 0:06:19.884 Her and the people who had never seen anything like 0:06:20.004 --> 0:06:21.004 it ever. 0:06:21.244 --> 0:06:24.004 I haven't seen an example of online misleading and deceptive 0:06:24.044 --> 0:06:27.004 conduct of this sort of scale in this country or 0:06:27.364 --> 0:06:28.404 frankly anywhere. 0:06:28.524 --> 0:06:32.364 She doesn't have cancer, she has no brainshumors. Everything is 0:06:32.404 --> 0:06:33.004 a lie. 0:06:33.364 --> 0:06:43.724 This is extraordinary stories Belle Gibson. Wynham is an unremarkable 0:06:43.764 --> 0:06:48.924 suburb of Brisbane, wide streets weatherboard Queenslanders, with iconic verandas 0:06:49.284 --> 0:06:53.684 and a view overlooking Morton Bay. There's a jetty mangroves, 0:06:54.204 --> 0:06:56.964 a popular waiting pool frequented by local kids in the 0:06:56.964 --> 0:07:01.484 summer holidays. It's also where Annabelle Natalie Gibson grew up. 0:07:02.244 --> 0:07:06.444 Born in October nineteen ninety one, Her story starts there 0:07:07.164 --> 0:07:10.884 in Queensland. It's not necessarily the kind of place you 0:07:10.964 --> 0:07:14.324 might imagine as home to a master criminal. But then again, 0:07:14.764 --> 0:07:19.404 Bell Gibson's origin story isn't particularly easy to piece together, 0:07:19.964 --> 0:07:23.124 but there are a few things we can be sure of. 0:07:23.804 --> 0:07:25.924 One of them is that Belle Gibson grew up at 0:07:26.004 --> 0:07:29.524 least for a time, in Winnhem with her mum Natalie, 0:07:29.764 --> 0:07:33.644 and her brother Nick. Despite its suburban charm nowadays, back 0:07:33.644 --> 0:07:36.444 in the early two thousands there was a spike in 0:07:36.604 --> 0:07:40.084 local crime around Winnham. For example, police had enforced a 0:07:40.124 --> 0:07:42.764 band on hoodies to deal with the increasing amount of 0:07:42.884 --> 0:07:45.764 armed robberies in the area, and things at Bell's place 0:07:46.364 --> 0:07:51.724 weren't always easy. According to Belle, she had a nomadic childhood, 0:07:51.964 --> 0:07:55.244 having never met her father and constantly moving between cities 0:07:55.284 --> 0:07:58.564 before settling in Brisbane. She told The Australian Woman's Weekly 0:07:58.684 --> 0:08:00.044 in twenty fifteen. 0:07:59.884 --> 0:08:03.004 When I started school, my mum went my daughter's all 0:08:03.004 --> 0:08:03.484 grown up. 0:08:03.524 --> 0:08:03.764 Now. 0:08:04.284 --> 0:08:06.284 All of a sudden, I was walking to school on 0:08:06.324 --> 0:08:10.244 my own, making school lunches and cleaning the house. Every day. 0:08:10.724 --> 0:08:14.124 It was my responsibility to do grocery shopping, do the washing, 0:08:14.524 --> 0:08:17.644 arrange medical appointments, and pick up my brother. I didn't 0:08:17.684 --> 0:08:18.284 have toys. 0:08:18.844 --> 0:08:21.724 Claire Weaver, the journalist who interviewed her for that story, 0:08:21.804 --> 0:08:25.604 says Belle claimed she was also burdened with responsible beyond 0:08:25.604 --> 0:08:28.844 her years as a young girl, things like caring for 0:08:28.884 --> 0:08:29.964 her autistic brother. 0:08:30.564 --> 0:08:33.244 There might be truth in there, As with some other 0:08:33.284 --> 0:08:36.444 things Belle has said, There might be There might be 0:08:36.484 --> 0:08:38.084 the case that some of it's true and some of 0:08:38.124 --> 0:08:42.404 it's been exaggerated or elaborated. Maybe she had just had 0:08:42.524 --> 0:08:46.924 had this really terrible, bleak childhood. But I can't help think, 0:08:46.964 --> 0:08:49.404 given the pattern of what she said more recently, that 0:08:49.604 --> 0:08:55.164 maybe some of it she's built upon and exaggerated. 0:08:55.844 --> 0:08:59.644 Nick Toscano and Bo Donnelly, a Melbourne based journalist who 0:08:59.884 --> 0:09:03.484 wrote a book about Belle Gibson it's called The Woman 0:09:03.524 --> 0:09:06.844 Who Fooled the World. Bo told Channel ten in twenty 0:09:06.884 --> 0:09:10.324 seventeen that Belle may have had a difficult childhood. 0:09:10.404 --> 0:09:14.044 Belle certainly has come from a troubled upbringing. She's come 0:09:14.044 --> 0:09:17.164 from a lot of instability. Indeed, it doesn't excuse what 0:09:17.164 --> 0:09:19.924 she's done, but we were left sort of feeling somewhat 0:09:20.244 --> 0:09:23.524 sympathetic towards her. Of course, it doesn't excuse the sort 0:09:23.564 --> 0:09:26.884 of wrongdoing and the deceit and the way she led 0:09:27.404 --> 0:09:34.044 actual cancer sufferers astray. But look, someone who who was 0:09:34.084 --> 0:09:37.124 mentally healthy, completely mentally healthy, I don't think would have 0:09:37.124 --> 0:09:39.924 been able to perpetuate such a life for so long. 0:09:39.964 --> 0:09:41.684 So I think there is an element of sympathy. 0:09:42.004 --> 0:09:45.524 After apparent instability at home in her early years, Belle 0:09:45.564 --> 0:09:48.644 seemed to have found her feet by high school, and 0:09:48.724 --> 0:09:53.204 she thrived. Her teachers described her as a high achiever, 0:09:53.804 --> 0:09:59.284 an exemplary pupil, but she also excelled outside of the classroom. 0:09:59.684 --> 0:10:03.124 Bell enrolled in acting classes at the Mercury Youth Theater. 0:10:03.564 --> 0:10:07.004 According to her drama teacher, she was quite good, and 0:10:07.084 --> 0:10:11.084 she was renowned as a great storyteller among her peers, 0:10:11.644 --> 0:10:15.164 Kelsey gamble knew Bell threw acting classes and remembers her 0:10:15.164 --> 0:10:18.844 well partly for the way the other students reacted to 0:10:18.884 --> 0:10:23.604 what they saw as her fantasist side. Kelsey told Nick 0:10:23.644 --> 0:10:25.004 Toscano and Bo Donald. 0:10:25.284 --> 0:10:29.164 She was extremely well known for what basically amounts to 0:10:29.204 --> 0:10:30.244 compulsive lying. 0:10:30.644 --> 0:10:33.564 She was honestly a laughing stock half the time. People 0:10:33.604 --> 0:10:37.004 made fun of her. Bell told classmates she was a 0:10:37.124 --> 0:10:40.884 test tube baby well part of the witness protection program. 0:10:41.404 --> 0:10:44.044 But there was one theme that began to emerge in 0:10:44.084 --> 0:10:49.404 her tall tales, and it stuck around stories of medical 0:10:49.484 --> 0:10:53.924 dramas and incredible recovery. Bell told many people that she'd 0:10:53.924 --> 0:10:57.484 suffered major heart problems and had even undergone a series 0:10:57.524 --> 0:11:01.844 of life saving operations. Bell's former boyfriend, Jacob he heard 0:11:01.964 --> 0:11:03.604 a lot of Bell's stories. 0:11:03.804 --> 0:11:06.124 She couldn't go five minutes without making up a story 0:11:06.724 --> 0:11:09.244 back then. It was about her heart, and it all 0:11:09.244 --> 0:11:10.764 just went over the top of my head because it 0:11:10.804 --> 0:11:14.044 was just so frequent. That's how she works. She just 0:11:14.084 --> 0:11:16.004 opens her mouth and starts saying stories. 0:11:16.684 --> 0:11:19.524 By the time she was eighteen, Belle had left school 0:11:19.604 --> 0:11:23.164 and moved to Perth. That's where she found her first 0:11:23.204 --> 0:11:27.524 online audience. It's also where, according to The Weekly, Bell 0:11:27.644 --> 0:11:31.044 started working in a call center at a private health 0:11:31.044 --> 0:11:34.924 insurance firm. She was speaking to sick people day in, 0:11:35.724 --> 0:11:39.924 day out and hearing all about their illnesses. She told 0:11:39.964 --> 0:11:40.484 Claire Weaver. 0:11:40.604 --> 0:11:43.644 At the time, I was hearing some horrible things about 0:11:43.644 --> 0:11:44.924 what people were going through. 0:11:45.404 --> 0:11:48.884 Bell's first blogging experience came through a chat room about 0:11:48.964 --> 0:11:52.484 rock band The Flaming Lips. She told that community she 0:11:52.524 --> 0:11:55.164 was posting from a Perth hospital ward, where she was 0:11:55.204 --> 0:11:58.564 waiting for the first of three or more operations to 0:11:58.604 --> 0:12:02.644 remove fluid from around her heart. Bell described in vivid 0:12:02.684 --> 0:12:07.524 detail a series of operations, specialist appointments, even visits to 0:12:07.564 --> 0:12:11.164 the hospital chapel. She said she was undergoing tests for 0:12:11.244 --> 0:12:16.204 a heart tumor and preparing for chemotherapy. Bell also wrote 0:12:16.284 --> 0:12:19.564 that she went into a coma after dying on the 0:12:19.604 --> 0:12:20.524 operating table. 0:12:20.924 --> 0:12:23.364 The doctor comes in and tells me the draining failed 0:12:23.524 --> 0:12:26.044 and I went into cardiac arrest and died for just 0:12:26.204 --> 0:12:29.764 under three minutes. I went straight into a coma situation 0:12:29.884 --> 0:12:33.564 for six hours and just woke up crying for my iPhone. 0:12:34.444 --> 0:12:37.844 They're amazed, I'm sitting up already and claim a miracle. Anyway, 0:12:37.924 --> 0:12:40.804 the procedure failed and I died pretty Nuly. 0:12:41.164 --> 0:12:44.844 After her alleged major heart surgery, there was another turning 0:12:44.924 --> 0:12:49.004 point in Bell's story. She got the cervical cancer vaccine, 0:12:49.164 --> 0:12:52.764 a HPV immunization that began to roll out across Australia. 0:12:52.844 --> 0:12:55.964 In two thousand and seven, Bell wrote that after getting 0:12:55.964 --> 0:13:01.204 her second vaccination, she suffered a stroke. It was a 0:13:01.364 --> 0:13:05.564 strange claim, as doctor Brad Mackay, Sydney GP and author 0:13:05.604 --> 0:13:07.284 of Fake Medicine explains. 0:13:07.924 --> 0:13:10.164 Back in two thousand and nine, Bell Gibson said that 0:13:10.244 --> 0:13:13.724 she received a terrible diagnosis from her doctor. She said 0:13:13.764 --> 0:13:17.004 that she was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was terminal 0:13:17.164 --> 0:13:19.404 and she only had a few months to live. So 0:13:19.484 --> 0:13:21.324 this is a really odd part of the story where 0:13:21.364 --> 0:13:24.084 Bell Gibson was saying that she had been immunised against 0:13:24.124 --> 0:13:28.204 cervical cancer and then subsequently had had a stroke and 0:13:28.244 --> 0:13:31.364 then that had led to brain cancer. So it's sort 0:13:31.404 --> 0:13:34.924 of like blaming a vaccine on getting cancer. But what 0:13:35.404 --> 0:13:39.764 we know about using the HPV, the human papalomavirus vaccine, 0:13:40.164 --> 0:13:42.364 is that it's not been linked at all with cancer. 0:13:42.404 --> 0:13:46.044 It's not linked with stroke whatsoever, so blaming it is 0:13:46.364 --> 0:13:49.564 a little bit far fetched. We do know that it's 0:13:49.604 --> 0:13:52.244 great at stopping people from getting cervical cancer and also 0:13:52.284 --> 0:13:56.444 genital wartz, but also with brain cancer. If that's growing, 0:13:56.684 --> 0:13:59.244 that could potentially break a blood vessel and then cause 0:13:59.244 --> 0:14:01.764 a stroke to happen. But a stroke itself, like a 0:14:01.844 --> 0:14:04.524 bleed within the brain, that's not going to trigger a 0:14:04.564 --> 0:14:06.804 cancer to then occur. It's the wrong way round. 0:14:07.164 --> 0:14:09.524 It's at this point that eighteen year old Bell says 0:14:09.644 --> 0:14:12.324 she was introduced to a man called doctor Mark John's 0:14:12.604 --> 0:14:16.684 by a group of anti vaccination campaigners. Bell said doctor 0:14:16.764 --> 0:14:21.164 John's was a neurologist and immunologist from Melbourne's Peter McCallum 0:14:21.204 --> 0:14:24.684 Cancer Center. This introduction would set about a chain of 0:14:24.884 --> 0:14:28.444 events that would eventually bring Bell to Melbourn, where she 0:14:28.524 --> 0:14:34.164 settled permanently and where everything was about to change. You'll 0:14:34.164 --> 0:14:40.324 hear more about doctor John's later in Bell's story. It 0:14:40.404 --> 0:14:44.444 was twenty ten. Bell was living in Melbourne with her 0:14:44.444 --> 0:14:49.404 boyfriend Nathan Corbett. She'd been diagnosed with brain cancer, and 0:14:49.444 --> 0:14:51.964 she was about to give birth to her son, Oliver. 0:14:52.804 --> 0:14:55.164 It was around this time that Belle claimed she underwent 0:14:55.284 --> 0:14:59.604 conventional treatment for this malignant brain tumor. Doctor Brad MacKaye 0:14:59.684 --> 0:15:02.804 says there are a few options that would be presented 0:15:02.804 --> 0:15:04.764 to patients with Bell's diagnosis. 0:15:05.164 --> 0:15:08.924 The treatment options that Bell would have been offered would 0:15:08.924 --> 0:15:13.364 have been things like chemotherapy, radiotherapy, so poisons into the 0:15:13.444 --> 0:15:16.604 vein to try to kill the cancer. And radiotherapy so 0:15:16.644 --> 0:15:19.644 putting X rays towards where the cancers were to try 0:15:19.684 --> 0:15:23.244 to shrink them down. Sometimes we would engage with surgery. 0:15:23.524 --> 0:15:25.444 So many people with brain cancer will have a scar 0:15:25.564 --> 0:15:27.724 on the side of their head where a surgeons have 0:15:27.764 --> 0:15:28.764 gone and to remove it. 0:15:29.004 --> 0:15:33.764 But Belle would eventually describe how she abandoned these treatments 0:15:33.804 --> 0:15:37.684 in favor of holistic remedies and alternative medicine. 0:15:37.764 --> 0:15:40.924 So Belle said that she went in for treatment at 0:15:40.924 --> 0:15:43.324 the hospital, that she went to the oncology ward, and 0:15:43.404 --> 0:15:46.484 that she received treatment. She was saying that it was 0:15:46.564 --> 0:15:48.884 just too much for her, that it was if she 0:15:48.924 --> 0:15:52.364 was feeling overwhelmed. She didn't really know what to do. 0:15:53.124 --> 0:15:57.364 She wasn't wanting to persevere with the typical medical model 0:15:57.564 --> 0:16:01.324 with westernized treatment, and so she decided at that time 0:16:01.364 --> 0:16:04.164 that she wanted to take some alternative remedies. She wanted 0:16:04.204 --> 0:16:06.444 to do her own research and figure out what would 0:16:06.484 --> 0:16:07.844 work for her and her body. 0:16:07.884 --> 0:16:11.204 At that time, this became a crucial turning point in 0:16:11.244 --> 0:16:16.484 Bell's blogs. Today, wellness influences are a mainstream staple of 0:16:16.524 --> 0:16:20.444 every social media platform, but in two thousand and nine, 0:16:20.724 --> 0:16:24.484 they were just beginning to flourish. Many of us hadn't 0:16:24.484 --> 0:16:28.964 even heard of the word wellness. Known as the original 0:16:29.004 --> 0:16:33.764 wellness warrior, Jessica Ainsco, another young woman from Queensland, was 0:16:33.804 --> 0:16:38.764 documenting her alternative cancer treatment online to an ever growing audience. 0:16:39.484 --> 0:16:44.004 Jessica was a writer and blogger, an online editor for 0:16:44.124 --> 0:16:47.804 Dolly magazine, living what she deemed her hectic dream life 0:16:47.924 --> 0:16:51.604 in Sydney when she was diagnosed with an extremely rare 0:16:51.644 --> 0:16:56.124 and aggressive sarcoma. She was only twenty three. The cancer 0:16:56.204 --> 0:16:59.244 was in her left arm and hand, and after being 0:16:59.284 --> 0:17:02.604 told that her best treatment option was amputation, jess had 0:17:02.604 --> 0:17:07.564 decided to try to heal herself without traditional cancer treatment 0:17:08.284 --> 0:17:17.364 and to document the process. Jessica was a devotee of 0:17:17.524 --> 0:17:21.484 Gerson therapy, a food based protocol that claims to cure 0:17:21.564 --> 0:17:26.204 all kinds of serious ailments, most famously cancer, with an 0:17:26.204 --> 0:17:30.004 all vegetarian diet and a strict regime of fruit and 0:17:30.084 --> 0:17:35.724 veggie juices and coffee enemas. Here's jess describing her daily routine. 0:17:36.324 --> 0:17:38.564 So basically, a day of the life of a Gerson 0:17:38.644 --> 0:17:40.924 person is I wake up at six o'clock in the 0:17:40.964 --> 0:17:44.364 morning and I do my first coffee animal, so it's 0:17:44.404 --> 0:17:47.244 onto the bathroom floor when I do my animal, and 0:17:47.284 --> 0:17:50.764 then I go upstairs and I meditate for about half 0:17:50.804 --> 0:17:53.604 an hour to twenty five minutes, and then breakfast is 0:17:53.644 --> 0:17:56.084 at quarter past seven when we have our first. 0:17:55.924 --> 0:17:57.844 Juice, which is orange juice. 0:17:57.884 --> 0:18:00.964 So breakfast at seven, and then the next juice is 0:18:01.004 --> 0:18:02.084 at eight, and. 0:18:02.124 --> 0:18:04.844 The real veggie juice is starting from them, and it's. 0:18:04.684 --> 0:18:06.964 One veggie juice every hour on the. 0:18:06.964 --> 0:18:12.404 Hour right up until six o'clock in the evening. So yeah, 0:18:12.604 --> 0:18:15.964 basically week throughout the day, and we also have we 0:18:16.004 --> 0:18:18.764 do five coffee animals throughout the day, so spread between 0:18:18.804 --> 0:18:22.164 a few hours between each one. We have three four 0:18:22.244 --> 0:18:25.044 meals each day breakfast, lunch, and. 0:18:25.084 --> 0:18:27.084 Dinner, all at the same time every day. 0:18:29.564 --> 0:18:33.444 And basically, yeah, the therapy goes like that we're wrong, 0:18:33.484 --> 0:18:34.964 like a bit of a military regime. 0:18:35.004 --> 0:18:38.444 Actually on the hour, every hour right up until we 0:18:38.564 --> 0:18:41.404 go to bed at ten o'clock, Doctor Brad says. During 0:18:41.444 --> 0:18:45.004 her treatment, jess ains Co built up an online profile 0:18:45.084 --> 0:18:47.724 promoting her belief that food was medicine. 0:18:47.924 --> 0:18:50.164 Gerson therapy has been a therapy that's been around for 0:18:50.244 --> 0:18:53.124 many many years, even from like the sixties and seventies. 0:18:53.524 --> 0:18:56.524 It's a treatment that involves doing lots and lots of juices, 0:18:56.684 --> 0:19:00.484 so fresh vegetables and fruit, putting them into a big juicer. 0:19:00.764 --> 0:19:03.324 And even it's quite onerous because you have to have 0:19:03.444 --> 0:19:07.244 the juice on the hour, every hour, every day for 0:19:07.284 --> 0:19:11.044 a long time. It also involves using enemas that usually 0:19:11.044 --> 0:19:14.564 either contain coffee or caster oil. And again you need 0:19:14.604 --> 0:19:17.484 to be doing these these enemas a couple of times 0:19:17.484 --> 0:19:20.204 a day at the least, with the whole principle that 0:19:20.204 --> 0:19:22.964 you're trying to rid your body of toxins, getting rid 0:19:23.004 --> 0:19:25.204 of toxins that could be sitting in your lower and 0:19:25.244 --> 0:19:30.164 testine and evacuating them. So yeah, like it hasn't been 0:19:30.164 --> 0:19:33.644 proven to work, and suddenly there are practitioners around the 0:19:33.644 --> 0:19:36.164 world that still do it, but suddenly it's not recommended 0:19:36.204 --> 0:19:37.164 in Australia. 0:19:37.364 --> 0:19:43.524 Australia's wellness army was swelling and just like Jess Belle 0:19:43.564 --> 0:19:45.644 was going to be a part of it. Bill Gibson 0:19:45.724 --> 0:19:48.324 is part of a new breed of entrepreneur. She is 0:19:48.364 --> 0:19:49.444 an ecopreneur. 0:19:51.804 --> 0:19:53.764 He tastes that Mango Bell launched. 0:19:53.524 --> 0:19:56.564 The Whole Pantry at last year. Belle Gibson was a 0:19:56.604 --> 0:19:59.604 single mother living in Melbourne. When she was told she 0:19:59.684 --> 0:20:03.884 only had four months to live, She said she tried chemotherapy, 0:20:03.964 --> 0:20:08.044 then radiation. She said, she then started exploring alternative therapies, 0:20:08.044 --> 0:20:13.164 including Gerson. Just like Jess, there's no scientific evidence that 0:20:13.204 --> 0:20:18.084 Gerson therapy cures cancer, but Belle was alive and thriving. 0:20:18.604 --> 0:20:22.244 Whatever she was doing, it seemed to work. So in 0:20:22.284 --> 0:20:26.524 twenty thirteen, Bell Gibson decided, I'd just like Jess to 0:20:26.604 --> 0:20:30.724 share her story with the world on Instagram, speaking candidly 0:20:30.764 --> 0:20:34.564 about her cancer and the wellness journey she believed was 0:20:34.604 --> 0:20:38.124 healing it, documenting the highs and lows of her day 0:20:38.164 --> 0:20:42.084 to day experiences. It was her blog and social media 0:20:42.084 --> 0:20:46.004 platforms that would eventually land her a ground breaking app 0:20:46.324 --> 0:20:50.324 and a best selling book. Just like Jess Ainsco had 0:20:50.364 --> 0:20:54.284 publicly documented, Belle claimed she was curing herself through food 0:20:54.644 --> 0:20:59.604 and lifestyle, not medicine. Not only did her quickly growing 0:20:59.684 --> 0:21:03.684 follower base believe Bell, they gave her the attention she craved, 0:21:04.404 --> 0:21:08.844 out pourings of sympathy and concern, and perhaps most importantly, 0:21:09.284 --> 0:21:13.484 fellow cancer sufferers looked to her for hope. To them, 0:21:13.844 --> 0:21:16.884 this brave young woman was a beacon. If she was 0:21:16.884 --> 0:21:22.964 doing so well, surely they could too. In twenty fourteen, 0:21:23.204 --> 0:21:25.924 Kylie Willie was in a hospital bed feeling defeated and 0:21:26.004 --> 0:21:30.844 hopeless when she started following Belle Gibson on social media. Kylie, 0:21:30.844 --> 0:21:34.444 accustomed to an active lifestyle as a personal trainer, had 0:21:34.484 --> 0:21:39.724 recently gained thirty kilos. Her long brown hair had fallen out. 0:21:41.164 --> 0:21:44.604 Kylie had been diagnosed with grade three B T cell 0:21:44.684 --> 0:21:49.484 lymphoblastic lymphoma in her early forties. She had not one, 0:21:49.884 --> 0:21:53.244 but several tumors from her pelvis all the way up 0:21:53.284 --> 0:21:53.844 to her neck. 0:21:53.964 --> 0:21:57.244 I was completely shocked because I didn't smoke, you know, yoh, 0:21:57.244 --> 0:22:00.124 I'd like a glass of wine. But it was nothing excessive, 0:22:00.444 --> 0:22:04.444 lived a healthy life, no history of lymphoma in my family. 0:22:05.004 --> 0:22:07.604 Just a complete and utter mind blowing shock. 0:22:07.844 --> 0:22:10.484 In a race to stop the cancer spreading to her brain, 0:22:10.644 --> 0:22:15.364 Kylie had begun aggressive chemotherapy. It caused her physical pain 0:22:15.484 --> 0:22:20.164 in a way she had never experienced before. Her body ached. 0:22:21.204 --> 0:22:23.124 She felt constantly nauseous. 0:22:23.604 --> 0:22:26.164 My girlfriend came to visit me at the Alfred and 0:22:27.164 --> 0:22:31.484 she was chatting about Bell and talking about how she 0:22:32.044 --> 0:22:34.964 has been going through treatment for cancer. 0:22:35.244 --> 0:22:39.164 But She's curing herself with eating really healthy, clean diet. 0:22:39.004 --> 0:22:42.804 And you know, she wasn't going through the chemo or 0:22:43.244 --> 0:22:45.684 anything like that, and she was getting better. Yeah, so 0:22:45.724 --> 0:22:48.364 I sort of was thinking, here, I am in the hospital, 0:22:48.444 --> 0:22:50.204 following the protocols, having. 0:22:50.084 --> 0:22:51.844 Chemotherapy, getting sicker. 0:22:52.484 --> 0:22:56.564 There's Belle gibbson writing books, starting deals with Apple. She's 0:22:56.604 --> 0:22:59.004 got brain cancer, which is so much worse than mine. 0:22:59.124 --> 0:23:00.764 She's having this clean diet. 0:23:00.844 --> 0:23:03.004 I was obviously eating the food that was provided by 0:23:03.004 --> 0:23:05.324 the Alfred which isn't great. 0:23:05.484 --> 0:23:06.604 You know, it's hospital food. 0:23:07.044 --> 0:23:09.804 And I'm getting sicker, I'm having chemo, I'm following all 0:23:09.844 --> 0:23:13.484 of what the doctors say to do, and I'm nearly dying. 0:23:13.604 --> 0:23:15.644 And she's living her best life. 0:23:17.244 --> 0:23:21.004 By twenty thirteen, Belle had well and truly found her 0:23:21.044 --> 0:23:24.844 stride and her voice. Within a year of announcing on 0:23:24.884 --> 0:23:27.484 social media that she'd been healing her brain cancer with 0:23:27.604 --> 0:23:33.084 foods and alternative therapies, her ideas were turned into an app. 0:23:33.564 --> 0:23:37.204 It was called The Whole Pantry, and it was full 0:23:37.244 --> 0:23:39.804 of the kind of food that Bell was eating. It 0:23:39.804 --> 0:23:43.124 would go on to win awards, be championed by Apple, 0:23:43.604 --> 0:23:49.524 be described as groundbreaking and garner Bell Gibson International acclaim 0:23:49.564 --> 0:23:52.004 and a very lucrative book deal. 0:23:52.364 --> 0:23:54.284 Yeah, I had the book, I had the app, I 0:23:54.404 --> 0:23:57.644 donated money to her, I went on all the Bell 0:23:57.724 --> 0:23:58.564 Gibson rides. 0:23:59.044 --> 0:24:03.244 So what was it all about? What was the Whole Pantry. 0:24:03.244 --> 0:24:07.524 A recipe colection full of whole foods and vegetarian recipes, 0:24:07.924 --> 0:24:10.724 which is the way that we encourage people to get 0:24:10.764 --> 0:24:13.804 back to the fundamentals of eating more fruits and vegetables. 0:24:14.804 --> 0:24:18.204 The Whole Pantry app was celebrated as a sleek database 0:24:18.204 --> 0:24:22.404 full of thoughtful recipes accompanied by lifestyle tips and tricks, 0:24:22.724 --> 0:24:26.164