A woman who convinced friends she was going to die from cancer has been jailed for 5 months and ordered to pay the money back after it turned out to be a pack of lies.
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Toni Standen, 29, was so convincing that one businessman donated £2,000 for a fundraiser that was set up to pay for her wedding.
She told two of her closest friends Angela Rowson and Jennifer Douglass that she had ovarian cancer and that it had spread to other parts of her body in June 2015. Standen, from Widnes, Cheshire, gave regular updates on treatments she was receiving and even shaved her hair off as part of the scam that cost her friends and family £8,344.
Her story was picked up by local media, and she even received a video message of encouragement from Everton FC.
Meanwhile, she also used her father Derek – who was actually dying of cancer – to further gain sympathy from people (Derek died before his daughter’s wedding and before the cancer lie was revealed).
One guest at the wedding told the Metro:
After hearing her father’s laboured words (via pre-recorded video) she got up and gave a faultless speech, even cracking a few jokes.
Her mother and brother were in bits. We’d all just listened to a father of the bride message from beyond the grave.
Toni even received a video message from Everton FC, delivered by one of the top players. She laughed throughout.
Suspicions grew when Toni, um, didn’t die, and she finally admitted that she did not have cancer in a recorded three-way phone call with her two friends.
She sent them a text message afterwards saying:
I love you both, I am thankful for everything over the last couple of years. I am very sorry for all of this, I am embarrassed and heartbroken and right now I am struggling.
There is so much I want to say but struggling where to start. At the minute I don’t know if Jim and I will be getting a divorce, I don’t blame him if he does and I don’t blame you both if this is the end, I completely understand and will have to somehow move on through it.
Sentencing her, Judge Sanders said:
You continued to embellish that tissue of lies, saying you had weeks to live. I don’t accept you couldn’t stop. Not only did you not stop, you made it worse by giving newspaper interviews to engender public sympathy.
You used that money raised through the generosity of strangers to fund a wedding and a holiday. You kept taking money over many months. Every right thinking member of society would be appalled by your behaviour.
Unbelievable. What I can’t wrap my head around when it comes to cancer fakers is that…. terminal cancer has an ending – you die. So what was Toni Standen’s end game here? I guess she thought she would cross that bridge when she got to it, except when that bridge came there was nothing to do except admit that she never had cancer in the first place.
Just a rubbish scam that was doomed to fail and eventually get found out. Now she’s lost her friends, her money and her husband too from the sounds of it (shocking that he never found her out himself). Note to cancer fakers everywhere – don’t be a f-cking idiot, it’s clearly just not worth it.
For the X-ray technician who faked a cancer scare in order to fondle a patient’s boobs, click HERE. Incel to the max.
