Belle Gibson, the Whole Pantry app founder who is under fire for allegedly fabricating her cancer survival story – was featured in a recent Tech Guide podcast where she admits to being diagnosed with cancer – twice.
At the time of the recorded interview Ms Gibson was in Cupertino after she was handpicked by Apple to become the first Australian to develop for the upcoming Apple Watch.
You can hear that entire interview here using the audio player below.
The award-winning Whole Pantry app, and the business behind it, was created on the back of her response to overcome terminal brain cancer with natural and nutritious foods.
But now her story of cancer survival has been brought into question and she has failed to respond to enquiries about her health history.
Police even visited her Melbourne home to investigate the alleged false cancer claims.
There were reports Ms Gibson was also erasing social media posts, pictures and reports about her reported terminal illness.
The Whole Pantry website now refers to her as “our previous managing director”.
Ms Gibson was also due to publish a health and wellness book through Penguin but the publisher admits it didn’t check the author’s claims in the 3000-word preface.
But Episode 114 of the Tech Guide podcast has Ms Gibson describing her journey battling cancer in her own words.
“Five years ago I was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer – I’m really honest about my journey with my health,” she told Tech Guide editor Stephen Fenech during the podcast interview.
“I also think this is my chosen journey and it works really well for me – we just want to go ‘hey maybe eat some more fruit and vegetables, move your body a little more, drink a little bit more water’ and do it all with simple intentions and we really achieve that with The Whole Pantry.”
But Ms Gibson, before being asked by Apple to travel to the launch event in Cupertino after developing her Whole Pantry app for the new Apple Watch, said she had been “re-diagnosed with multiple cancers”.
“It’s funny that I’m here – all of my friends and family said ‘Belle you can’t go’. Six weeks ago I was re-diagnosed with multiple cancers – but I’m feeling on top of the world.
“I get out of bed for what we do – I realty believe we’re changing people’s lives.”
But the controversy doesn’t end there. Ms Gibson also says a portion of her company’s profits are donated to charity.
According to The Australian, two charitable organisations – The 2h Project and One Girl – confirmed Ms Gibson had used their names in fundraising drives but no money was forwarded.
The Whole Pantry was reportedly aiming to contribute $300,000 to charities but have only made confirmed donations amounting to just $7,000.
But here’s what Ms Gibson told Tech Guide about her charitable ventures.
“And we have a giving back end of the company as well. Your app download transfers into community donations so not only are you choosing to create changes within your life but your also financing us to be able to support changes to those that otherwise don’t have that access,” she said in her Tech Guide interview.
“So that’s everything for funding, medical support for children that are living with cancer building schools in Sierra Leone.”
Apple has yet to make a statement about the situation and The Whole Pantry’s involvement as a launch app on the Apple Watch which will go on sale on April 24.
The Whole Pantry is still featured on the Apple website as one of the apps for Apple Watch.
You can listen to the complete Belle Gibson interview with Tech Guide right here using the audio player.
5 Comments
You really suspect she would lie about having Cancer?
it’s certainly looking that way
This woman is clearly a psychopath. Try independently checking any of the facts about her life and you will draw a blank, from her autistic brother, her severe obesity at age 11, her mother with MS, her own cancer, a stroke…on and on it goes, high drama and there won’t be a single independent person to verify ANY of this – such as a real Doctor, a real Hospital administrator, a real diagnostic test….the media have to accept some of the blame for being sucked in by a pretty face
If she was REAL, and all her fine words about care and concern and ethical responses to inequality and so on, she would not be HIDING and RUNNING AWAY! She is a TOTAL FRAUD.
I went to purchase her app as i have a passion for cooking and wow the reviews weren’t good at all i decided not to purchase as a few people said she didnt update the content. A lot of the reviews in the apple store weren’t happy that she didn’t donate a percentage of the money towards cancer fund.
If your looking for a great cooking app go with Jamie Oliver subscription based app 10/10 well worth it. Jamie updates the app weekly.
Ridiculous but at the same time sad, she definitely has some sort of mental issue. I don’t think it is as simple as her just being a con artist or scammer, she is a compulsive liar and no one who is sane can live a life of lies like this. If you look at the stories about her, she was 17 in 2009 and was already making up stories about dying on the operating table for heart surgery. Her goal was not money from the start, but she has some sort of undiagnosed mental disorder (personality disorder).
Believe it or not, my wife’s old high school friend is also a compulsive liar and she also told her friends she had cancer, and that it was later a misdiagnosis meant for someone else (a guy with the same name as her)… it is almost as though these compulsive liars think that if the lie is too far fetched, people will think it can’t be a lie.