Ashley Anne Kirilow, of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, appeared in court this morning, brought up on charges of fraud. Kirilow is a 23-year old woman who told 5,668 FaceBook friends that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and asked for donations to her charity "Change" for a Cure. "Change" is what she got - between $3000 and possibly $20,000 worth of contributions were raised for this young woman who said she had been diagnosed with four types of terminal cancer. To convince sympathizers of her plight, Kirilow shaved her long dark hair, waxed away her eyebrows, and plucked her eyelashes, giving the appearance of a chemotherapy patient. She had the words "WONT QUIT" tattooed on her knuckles, and dressed in colors that emphasized her pale skin and slender build.
Several people who heard of her charity and her quest to fund research for a new cancer drug set up fundraisers on her behalf, one of which netted $9000. She was provided with a rent-free apartment, pocket money, airline travel to California, and a tour of Disneyland. When asked why she created and maintained this fraud, Kirilow said, "I did lie about having cancer. Originally it was because I was alone and had no one who cared about me." Kirilow's parent have been divorced for some years, and are remarried with new second families. In 2008, she had a biopsy on a breast lump, which turned out to be benign. One evening when feeling low, she created the FaceBook page about her "cancer" and began asking for funds. "It went wrong, it spread like crazy, and then it seemed like the whole world knew," wrote Kirilow.
When the fundraising was at its height, Kirilow's father contacted two of her primary supporters, Jamie Counsell, 17, and Adam Catley, 22. He told them that Ashley had never had, and did not presently have cancer. It appears that around that time, the young woman quarreled with her room mates and packed up her funds, only to vanish. Counsell and Kirilow's parents contacted others who had helped with "Change" for a Cure and filed a complaint against Kirilow in late June. She could not be seen or contacted from May until early August, and when found, she had grown her dark hair long enough to brush back over her ears.
What could inspire such an escapade from such a young woman? Kirilow said she wanted to pull her family back together. But her parents report that when she contacted them to ask in vain for money on the basis of a cancer diagnosis, she became verbally abusive and cut off communication with them. She reportedly kept herself gaunt, pale, and bald to perpetrate this fraud and play on the sympathy, and pocketbooks, of equally young people who had helped genuine cancer patients. Such behavior is clearly a cry for help: self-mutilation and possibly anorexia are signs of deep distress and self-hatred. Her former supporters are now becoming polarized: some are ready to forgive her, while others are angry and feel betrayed. Has she jinxed the fundraising scene for actual breast cancer patients? Will this desperate and disturbed young woman cause a breakdown in trust and generosity that so many people depend upon, when they are truly ill and in need of funds? Let us hope not.
Kirilow now faces three counts of fraud under $5,000. No money was given for bail, and no family members appeared on her behalf, so she will be staying in the lockup until she can produce a payment for bail. Assuming that she has no access to a computer or a cell phone, it is unlikely that she will be able to raise any amount. That was a very different story until recently.
What do you think of this? Kirilow says she wants to find a way to repay the people who gave her money when they thought she had breast cancer. She will be prosecuted for fraud, but do you think she is a villain or a victim? Should she have to do jail time in addition to restitution, or should she receive psychological counseling to heal her self-hatred? I'll suggest one more thing: how about a year of volunteer service with a local breast cancer resource center, assisting patients with daily challenges? That way, she would be useful, needed, and never alone. Please leave a comment below.
This story hits close to home as I live not far from Burlington and have friends there. I think it is a terrible thing that she has done, but also an obvious sign that something is wrong. I agree, time spent volunteering with real cancer patients would be good. But I think she also needs to see a mental health professional to deal with her issues. I don’t see jail helping her, it would only deter others from doing the same.
This poor, pathetic, sad excuse for a woman needs help not jail. She should spend some time in a chemo center and with a patient for the next week to see what we have to go though. I would not want to face her Karmic return on this stunt!
Very Sad… Could Never Belive SomeOne Could Do Something Like This.
I Think Jail Time ForSure ReGarding Frauds But Some Help Also Why Did She Even Fake All This???
Are you serious? Let her volunteer at a chemo center? Oh sure! Then she can learn the ins and outs of cancer and start another scam under another name! What she did is outrageous! It’s unforgiveable! Jail time is what she deserves, nothing less! And when she gets out she should be ordered to get a real job and her paycheck should go to a breast cancer fund for real! I am one year in remission for bilateral breast cancer!
She’s not the only one to do this there has been many who have/are trying to con people out of money..I don’t think spending time with people who have cancer is the answer..to me it’s a insult.. I have been through Breast Cancer.I went through the throwing up, tired all the time, losing my hair,the effects of chemo is not fun.. I would not want to be around this person.. Like someone said, let this person be around cancer people so she can learn more on how to get money… I DON’T THINK SO…
OMG! If they don’t keep this young lady locked up, she may pull something else, as she is clearly very smart and very devious. I feel sorry for her, but would not trust her not to continue being manipulative until she has had some serious counseling. I say keep her in jail while she undergoes intensive counseling. The idea of having her do volunteer work with real breast cancer patients is not a bad idea in theory, but very scary to me as a real patient. I have enough to deal with without having contact with such a manipulative and self-serving person. I am afraid she would just learn more through contact with real patients that she could use to continue manipulating others. Sorry for venting, but this just makes me sick. She will not learn anything from receiving sympathy; she needs to be held accountable and let the chips fall where they may!
Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
I am so disgusted by her behavior. Yes I hope they make the charges stick. She deserves prison time. and I hope they kick some sense in her while in prison. TH e money she raked in shoudl go to charity as the people intended. But she needs to be treatd as a criminal. Con artists should never be treated with compassion, it only encourages them to do it again.
oh and if I found out someone like this was treating me during my stint through Chemo- I would have felt contaminated by her aura. Keep her far away from real fighters.
Cancer is nothing to joke about!!!! There are millions of people out there fighting for their life, and some just finding out they have cancer, and they are scared!! I know, I was one of them! How dare you start up a ‘fund’ for yourself and get all these people who feel sorry for you contribute. How would you feel if one of those people was an older woman or man, on Social Security and only bringing into the house a small income, but yet they feel sorry for you after reading your story, so they send money.
I only hope one day you will feel regret at doing something like this. I feel part of your sentencing should be having to spend your time (volunteering) to a cancer facility…………than, and only than, will you understand how this aweful disease affects families!!!
I’ve endured 14 different kinds of chemo, 4 hormones, radiation and bi-lateral mastectomy, with spread to lungs and skin. How dare she perpetrate such an unthinkable fraud. I don’t know what her punishment should be. But nothing they do to her will be enough. Her heart has to change for her to really see what she has done to the women who go thru the daily struggles of this horrible disease. Shame on her!
I can’t even express all the emotions I’m going through thinking about what she did. That is low. May this never happen again!
I am horrified that anyone would consider giving this con-artist access to sick people. So what if she feels sorry for herself and feels entitled to have people pity her and throw money at her?! She should not be rewarded with any sort of future publicity. Counseling is a joke, it does NOT work on Sociopaths, beyond teaching them how to beat “the system.” She deserves prison, work detail with money earned going to repay those who gave her money. The notion of her earning/fines going to some other cancer institute is dishonest. Restitution to the people who gave it to HER. They THEY can decide what to do now with their illegally coerced cash.
I believe she should have arrangements in place to pay the people back, or donate the money back to charity.
However, I also believe that counselling could help this case. If this girl gets sent to prison she will continue down this path. Although people who have cancer go through unthinkable pain, there is a deep, damaging pain associated with being emotionally scarred. She obviously did not have good life experiences to do something like this. This is an illness also. It is not cancer, but lets face it: nothing is. Cancer sucks, period. It’s probably one of the worst if not the worst thing, to us as a whole of humanity right now. But we aren’t talking about cancer here, really, we’re talking about this girl. And she -is- ill. Only 23 years old, in holding, and no one came to get her or bail her out. She was so desperate for attention that she lied about having cancer. Which also means that maybe, she walked into that appointment hoping she -did- have breast cancer. Because that is how awful she feels inside her, and hoped that if she had cancer that someone would give a crap about her. Think about that for a second, really; the kind of emotional pain you would have had to endure to -hope- or pretend you have cancer.
And then, it was her father who turned her in. (I am not saying she shouldn’t have gotten caught here,) But still, her father was the one who did it. Now this might seem like ‘the right thing to do’, but, behaviourally, even in our culture, that is a big form of betrayal. Meanwhile, most endearing/caring/true fathers would behave protectively, and would coerce her to stop, with minimal societal interference, by pretty much any means necessary. (How much you think Mr. Hilton forks out for Paris’s lawyers to keep his baby safe and sound?)
However, sending this small, slender girl who committed fraud to get beaten, made a slave to very scary women who are higher up in the prison hierarchy, is sealing her fate to maintain poor relationships (and therefore also bad relationship choices), continue to obtain negative attention however she can, and so forth.
Putting her into a program where she not only sees the effects of real cancer but helps out people with cancer and thier caregivers at a center, she might be able to create a meaningful relationship with someone, or even many people. (Which she is obviously lacking if she doesn’t regularily speak to her parents or could walk out on room-mates). Seeing the patients physical and emotional pain might help put it into perspective also. People like her are used to getting ignored so much and so frequently, that reality doesn’t seem like reality unless everything is in a complete extreme. (Major drama all the time). She could even develop positive relationships in a very monitored program. Positive experiences promote positive behaviour.
With regards to if the counselling/fine/volunteer work is guaranteed to work, obviously it isn’t. And I’m not saying that. However the sentence to prison and all the rest is pretty well a guarantee that she won’t ever get out of the system and make the right choices, and perhaps, go back to scamming people.
I would rather take the chance it could change her life for the better.
I hope the faith in humanity does not drop for the people who lost their money. It’s important to remember that although there are people who challenge our faith in humanity, we should not let that stop us from continuing to make the correct moral decisions when we are faced with them.
scenario cfcs browsers
Jail, Jail, and Jail.
This young woman obviously has mental health issues that have to be looked after. However, she should do the time for the crime. She never showed a conscience until she was caught. Everyone is sorry once they are caught!And obviously her parents have had enough of her shenanigans. I am sure from this story that this is not the first escapade but rather the only one that made the news. Good luck to the whole family. They will need it. Oh and by the way, I wouldn’t want someone so selfish to be around me if I was undergoing treatment. No thanks!
I understand people have problems but please I am fighting breast cancer been so sick and mouth sores and head shaved. For this woman to do such act please funding is hard to get and now people like us who really have it no one will give because of her problems.
Someone selfish act.We all have a problems but I never make up something like this for money. I shake my head in disappointment that she had to go to the lowest thing anyone could do and taking people for there money and it was mention 30,000 dollars.
should of checked out her story make sure and maybe this would not happened.I think she should stay in jail and never get out for such selfish act on her part she should live our life its awful and night mirror.
Another thing all those people gave there out of there heart
and now they will think twice about giving. so we have this person to thank for no funding makes me sick this should of never happened she not mental because she thought long and hard about this and she knew what she was doing the ability a person that has problems like that they do not energy or the thought pattern to do such a thing.
I shake my head she should never get out jail I do not feel bad or sorry for her only that she did a stupid thing and we suffer for her mistakes and we have cancer.Shame shame on her.
i was diagnosed with suspected breast cancer last year but due to my disability and country health system I was denied the opportunity to have it further investigated I am now worse
I never have once asked for donations for a charity
I have never