Faking Cancer

Can you imagine someone faking cancer? Well it happens all the time.

In fact right here in Logan Utah, Leslie Jensen began a GoFundMe fundraiser page, in November claiming that she was suffering from an aggressive brain cancer and was unable to provide for her 6-year-old daughter due to radiation treatments. 

The cancer Jensen said she had was the same stage 4 glioblastoma brain cancer as national right-to-die activist Brittany Maynard had. 

Leslie was arrested in December and booked on fraud. Much to the shock of family and friends, Leslie had been lying about her cancer.

It is still somewhat of a shock that this sweet loving young mother could do this. 

I am a friend of Leslie. I have watched her with her daughter and her family and she has always been a very loving and compassionate young woman. To learn of her deception has been very disturbing to all of her family and friends. 

As a former cancer patient, one might think that I would be furious that she manipulated people’s emotions in order to get money. Ironically, I’m not mad at Leslie, I pity her. 

I feel bad that because of her actions she might cause future harm to real cancer patients that will need help from the public, and know one will reach out to them. 

With that being said, I am not going to get on the band wagon to crucify Leslie or others like her. I believe that what goes around comes around. Because of her actions, Leslie will suffer the stigma of her deception for the rest of her life. She has lost her parental privileges and cannot have contact with her daughter, I think that in itself is a crime far worse than cancer. When you have cancer or know someone who has cancer, you go through a loss and a healing process. Leslie and others like her will never have that healing redemption that is found in a true cancer victim, and that is what I call karma.