The truth

I agree with JohnOconner - Cadee may not have cancer but she is just as ill in another way and does not deserve to be slagged off the way some have. mental illness is just awful - and it can cause a lot of distress; i speak as one who has cancer and has had clinical depression and still suffers from anxiety, and mood swings.

I was chatting with a member here last night who is a psychiatric nurse and this is a know condition - inventing a different life for yourself.

I know McMillan is not 'Mind' the charity for mental illness - but we should be as caring for people with mental issues as we have with cancer - indeed many cancer patients have mental problems too - so we should at least try to understand.

Two of the people closest to helping Cadee I would regard as good friends here, and i believe they did a wonderful job helping a soul in a very dark place. I have been in close contact with one of them for the last few days, and i greatly admire how she has handled this situation despite her own recent personal bereavement.  I met Cadee over a four day period on holiday with others here recently and she came across as a very nice if sad person - little did i realise why she was so sad.

I know  now that her parents know about this - and hope they will help her seek professional help and she can regain some normally.

I don't know how we can prevent this sort of thing happening on an open website - all are welcomed and helped and given support. Many of us are vigilant and have exposed many fakes fairly quickly - some of these cases have not been made public - and in some cases we have continued for a while to converse with the people concerned as some of us recognise they need as much help as cancer patients - albeit in a different way. But this and the Anna/charly case have been very different.

Let's have some forgiveness folks - there but for the grace of God go many of us.

God Bless

To be frank, I don't go with the mentally ill spin that you're putting on this Mal.  She's just a troll, seeking a reaction from vulnerable people, which to me makes her the lowest of the low.  Mental illness runs in my family, I have had two cousins commit suicide and several other family members have spent considerable spells in psychiatric care.  The only help this individual needs is for someone to remove her internet access!

I'm afraid it boils down to a lot of you being too gullible and too naive.  Many of you know me, a lot have met me in person, but just how many of you could name my partner or my daughter?  Not a lot, why? Because this is my cancer trip, not theirs and I don't need to involve them on this site.  The imposters always introduce a whole cast of people to make their stories more credible, but their stories aren't credible, they're flights of fancy that you really should see through.  It took me 5 minutes in chat to raise my concerns, another couple of minutes looking at her posts confirmed it to me. Oh and when she lost the ability to spell... omg... how ridiculous!

Real people have been hurt by the imposters on this site, too many times, but you're allowing it to happen, as Sniff said, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck then it probably is a duck.

What's that old addage - fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me!

Maybe chat should be shut down to prevent the same old people getting duped again.

Look up "Münchausen by Internet" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Münchausen_by_Internet ) ; it looks very like it to me. I'm with my psychologist on tuesday - so I will ask her about it.

Quote from Wiki:

Münchausen by Internet is a pattern of behavior in which Internet users seek attention by feigning illnesses in online venues such as chat rooms, message boards, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC). It has been described in medical literature as a manifestation of factitious disorder or factitious disorder by proxy.[1] Reports of users who deceive Internet forum participants by portraying themselves as gravely ill or as victims of violence first appeared in the 1990s due to the relative newness of Internet communications. The pattern was identified in 1998 by psychiatrist Marc Feldman, who created the term "Münchausen by Internet" in 2000. It is not included in the fourth revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR).

The development of factitious disorders in online venues is made easier by the availability of medical literature on the Internet, the anonymous and malleable nature of online identities, and the existence of communication forums established for the sole purpose of giving support to members facing significant health or psychological problems. Several high-profile cases have demonstrated behavior patterns which are common among those who pose as gravely ill, victims of violence, or whose deaths are announced to online forums. The virtual communities that were created to give support, as well as general non-medical communities, often express genuine sympathy and grief for the purported victims. When fabrications are suspected or confirmed, the ensuing discussion can create schisms in online communities, destroying some and altering the trusting nature of individual members in others. 

i also do not believe that she has a mental illness, yes this condition is known and may have been medically recognised but thats not to say that she suffers from it. i agree with solentlady on this, that if she had multiple characters and lived under the same roof with others it couldnt just go un-noticed for the length of time that it did. from my observation point, and ive had much much less contact with her than most of you, it seems that it was a horrible and disgusting game she was trying to play.  i just hope that people dont continue to fight with eachother over this cretin. as we all know much too well life is way too short to let people like her ruin and break the special friendships and connections that have been made on here. thinking of you all that were really taken in by her and hope that somewhere within all of the present madness and confusion you can get some peace.