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The.Mother.of.All.Cons.S01E01.I.Smell.a.Rat
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00:06maybe we can start with how would you describe the story oh I've tried to
00:12describe it it is just the wildest most bizarre story I mean it it's fiction but
00:23it's actually real and it actually happened I guess bonkers
00:37once upon a time a little girl lived with her mother in a small stone cottage on
00:43the edge of a great forest the little girl was poorly but all she thought
00:50about was helping other poorly children it's been the most incredible year
00:56really believe in magic has grown so much and more than really we ever dreamed it
01:02could Meg worked night and day to make dreams come true believe in magic was
01:15like no other charity it was more like a family I love magic Meg was a fairy godmother
01:24to all of those children every single child there was only two of them running
01:33this charity a mother and daughter then one day they found their Prince Charming
01:42and they told the whole world about believe in magic hi I'm Lily from One Direction me and the
01:49boys have been working with Meg and Jean now for almost as long as you've been a band
01:53the power and might of One Direction put this celebrity rocket under the feet of Meg and Jean and they
02:04did do unbelievable things
02:07together they raise thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds to sprinkle magic wherever it was needed
02:18but other people in the forest thought it was too good to be true
02:46these weren't disgusting agitations us of one of the worst homes of our whole lives I
02:52I don't know why you've done what you've done to us so much that you'll see how well you've been
02:59not all fairy tales end happily ever after
03:16I never forget the first time I met Meg we were 10 years old two very small quiet well one
03:24quiet 10 year old and Meg
03:28it was the two of us against the world it was just a constant whirlwind of madness and chaos
03:37you never knew what to expect
03:41guys you've done all the right things to make your place here in the final that was fantastic performance
03:50one evening after X Factor Meg called me up said I've got this idea I'm going to start a charity
03:59it sounded completely insane but I knew that if that's what she wanted to do there was nothing anyone could
04:06say or do to stop her
04:09it just gave her something to focus on because she had brain tumour was in and out of hospital going
04:18through various tests and treatments
04:21she had big ideas from the get-go it was very early days for Twitter but there was a lot
04:27of celebrities on there
04:29all it would take is a couple of them to support the charity and it would get the word out
04:35there
04:38any time someone remotely famous picked up on it she was just ecstatic
04:46but for Meg it's all about One Direction
04:52especially Harry Styles
04:54pink hearts appeared on screen around him for her
05:06the name believe in magic
05:08stem from her love of Disney
05:12believing in the magic of the world around you and
05:15just being able to escape day-to-day life and
05:18know that bigger and better things are possible
05:25Meg made everyone believe in magic
05:30charity was just magical from from the off
05:34I want you to go right back to the beginning
05:37did you have any idea how important believe in magic would become in your life?
05:42no never
05:58it's not as good of good news as we'd have hoped really I'm afraid
06:04the second we ended up in Great Ormond Street and we were told that Luna had a brain tumour everything
06:09changed
06:12we were living on the oncology ward
06:15it's very isolated it's very lonely
06:19I was incredibly vulnerable
06:23and I think the nurses referred us to the charity believe in magic
06:29and we received a wonderful invitation inviting us to a party at Hamley's
06:35yeah
06:36had you heard of believe in magic before?
06:38what did you know about the charity at that point?
06:41yeah no I knew nothing about the charity at all
06:47it was only ten minutes down the road from Great Ormond Street
06:50but it was just as far away as you could possibly get
06:55we pulled up and there was a red carpet
07:00it was just wow
07:03over the years there was lots of Hamley's parties
07:07when we were invited they'd taken over the whole of Hamley's
07:11all three floors
07:12it was impressive
07:15there was all kinds of things going on
07:17and nothing like we'd ever been to before
07:21how old does it smell?
07:25anything a child could ever ask for or wish for was there
07:29it was like being in Disneyland
07:31and while you were there you didn't feel like a poorly child's parent
07:36this charity gave me a lifeline
07:39because you're desperate for answers
07:41and particularly when your child's got something so rare
07:43or even undiagnosed
07:45Daisy
07:45Daisy was our fourth child
07:49and we found that she had this syndrome
07:51caused by a sporadic gene mutation
07:55it's like so rare
07:57I think it's something like 1 in 1.25 million
08:01friends you think are going to be friends
08:03just can't cope
08:07but you find your people
08:09there's a lot of love in this charity
08:11whereas some can be more formal
08:14this was more of a
08:16well they did they call themselves
08:17they believe in magic family
08:20everything had been set up
08:23by Meg
08:23who had been very ill herself
08:26and knew what it was like and wanted to
08:28just have treats for other children
08:31and this young excited teenager
08:35was supported and enabled by her mum to do these things
08:40Jean was very well spoken
08:42came across very educated
08:45a bit like meeting a head teacher
08:47if that makes any sense
08:49great with people
08:51very proud of what Meg was creating
08:53because she was her daughter
08:55and she was doing amazing things
09:01I remember thinking Meg is very much like a girl Peter Pan
09:05and she was so excited
09:08as excited as the children
09:11I was incredibly proud of everything that she was doing and achieving
09:14and it was just remarkable to watch it all unfold and grow
09:20it's Sunday the 9th of October
09:22and this is Rebel Arena
09:24welcome to BBC Radio 1's Teen Awards 2011
09:30is there someone that you know out there
09:32a really amazing person that the world should hear about
09:35this is your chance to nominate them for a BBC Radio 1 Teen Hero Award
09:40I nominated Meg for the Teen Awards
09:42I just thought it was a nice thing to kind of put her up for
09:48we'd known each other since primary school
09:51and I saw what she was achieving online with the charity
09:55as well as juggling her illness
09:58she was probably the most impressive person I knew
10:01so BBC Radio 1's Teen Awards is your chance to celebrate the achievements of remarkable and inspirational teenagers
10:09she was ecstatic that she'd been nominated
10:12I was super happy for her
10:14and I got to go enjoy the Teen Awards
10:25she emailed two tickets to me, two to Beth
10:29and then she was nowhere to be seen
10:32she was backstage
10:34with a mission
10:37she had these little purple wristbands made
10:40walked up to One Direction
10:42handed them a wristband and said
10:44this is my charity
10:46please wear this
10:47Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles
10:50and all the One Direction boys
10:53really liked the message
10:55how can you not want to get involved?
10:58it is time for their first public performance ever
11:02please welcome to the stage
11:05One Direction
11:07hello Wonder Woman
11:09you guys are absolutely confident
11:14you're insecure
11:16don't know what for
11:17to get them wearing these purple wristbands
11:20she was just ecstatic
11:25baby you light up my world like nobody else
11:29the way that you
11:30I loved One Direction
11:32I mean as did probably every teenage girl in the country at that point
11:36they wanted to tell you don't know
11:38oh oh
11:39that's what makes you beautiful
11:42don't you wanna know
11:43it just feels like their word is like absolute God
11:46like the things that they're interested in
11:47you're interested in
11:50I saw Harry's tweet about this new charity
11:54and this really amazing cause
11:56just followed and then
11:58that's kind of where it all started
12:03Meg became this massive part of the One Direction fandom
12:08this almost like mythical person
12:10that there was all this kind of buzz around
12:12because she was this like quite young person
12:14who had a brain tumour
12:15but doing all this stuff for charity
12:17and then the charity was just like growing and growing
12:19incredibly quickly
12:21guys let them through
12:23a lot of people saw
12:25Believe in Magic as a way to like
12:27get closer to One Direction or to meet them
12:29donate to Believe in Magic
12:31it's such a brilliant cause
12:33sports a good charity
12:34we all should buy the Believe in Magic wristband
12:37I remember when Jean and Meg told me
12:39about One Direction coming on board
12:41and things went crazy
12:43and it was brilliant marketing
12:46all of a sudden
12:48all of these young girls
12:49were then becoming involved in this
12:51this little charity
12:53Believe in Magic went global
12:56Hi, it's Louis from One Direction
12:58we've been working with Believe in Magic
13:00and we think Meg and the team are absolutely incredible
13:02Believe in Magic just felt like it had that really authentic
13:05connection to them
13:06they would do whatever she asked
13:09it felt like
13:10donate below
13:11thank you
13:17I got an email from Believe in Magic
13:20looking for people to run the Great South Run
13:22and raise money for them
13:24and I thought
13:25yeah, I can run, I can raise money
13:28and that's when I met Meg and Beth
13:30for the first time
13:32the three of us had a lot in common
13:35and yeah, we just became really good friends
13:38Jean went to One Direction's mums
13:41you smashed that mountain
13:44Anne Twiss, who was Harry Styles' mum
13:46climbed Mount Kilimanjaro
13:48to raise money for Believe in Magic
13:52it was genius
13:55Joanne Deacon, who was Louis Tomlinson's mum
13:57was throwing parties for Believe in Magic
14:01they were really involved because they're just trying to do really nice things
14:05and they're just trying to help vulnerable families
14:16Our second child, Corey, was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive childhood cancer
14:25I would go online all hours
14:27looking for survivor stories, looking for hope
14:34Believe in Magic opened up that world for parents
14:38when you're going through the most horrendous time of your life
14:41and that's what we were going through
14:44and you connect with other parents that understand
14:49it's not your normal friendship
14:51because it's not about your interests or their interests
14:54it's just about how best to help the child
15:00Adam was five years old
15:02when he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma
15:06it's the club that you would never ever choose to join
15:10but when you're in it with all the people going through the same thing at the time
15:14it's the most important thing ever
15:18you share their highs and you suffer their lows
15:24and it becomes all-consuming, it's the only thing that's important
15:32Hey Luna, it's Mummy and Luna
15:38You're kicking me off the sofa
15:40Luna was our second child
15:43Did you have a nice sleepy?
15:45She was, um, happy, funny, beautiful little girl
15:53She was our whole world
15:56Sorry
16:01It's fine
16:05When Luna passed away
16:08Jean was always there for me
16:13I wouldn't have thought anything of picking the phone up at 2 in the morning
16:16if I needed to cry and talk to her
16:20She would always say the right thing at the right time
16:26And it did feel special
16:27to know that someone cares so much
16:32She was a friend
16:35She did get me through a really dark time
16:39We just had an understanding of what it's like to have a really sick child
16:43and to be scared and not know what's going to happen
16:50I would chat with Jean
16:53Like me, she'd been on a journey
16:57She was a little bit guarded
17:00About how much she would give away
17:02And I mean, that's what a lot of us were like
17:05I know me particularly
17:06It was really hard for me to ever ask for help
17:09Because it felt like, as a parent, that I was failing
17:15And there was a lot that she kept very close to herself
17:23With every other charity, when a poorly child passes, everything stops
17:28But with Meg and Jean, the magic carried on
17:33It was coming up to Christmas
17:35Meg had sent this cryptic message
17:41About the most magical party
17:44It's a big surprise
17:46We would love Daisy to be involved
17:47And could you tell us her dress size?
17:52I wasn't looking forward to Christmas
17:54We'd only lost Luna four months earlier
17:56We didn't have the tree up at home
17:58I was trying to do my best to put on a brave front for the other kids
18:00And an invitation arrived in the post
18:03Addressed to Princess Enza, my daughter
18:07Delighted to invite you to believe in magic's princesses at the palace
18:11And then I spoke to her and said
18:12We're actually going to Buckingham Palace
18:14She said, yes, we're going to decorate the tree
18:15And have an afternoon tea with the princess
18:17Okay
18:21To the ball!
18:22Okay, okay, good
18:24The thing that made me laugh about Meg was just how nothing was too big
18:29If she thought about it and she wanted to do it
18:31She would completely focus on doing it
18:33And that just blew my mind
18:40We were all going to gather at the Langham
18:42Which was their favourite five star hotel
18:47Increasingly the charity was cash rich
18:50And you can really see that as the connection with One Direction happened
18:55There was more and more money coming in
19:03And there's this rack with all these beautiful dresses, all different colours
19:07Made by the designer who had made Kate Middleton's Bridesmaids dresses
19:16It was a complete step out of reality
19:23Meg and Jean were referred to as the Fairy Godmothers
19:26Because it did feel like they could just make these things happen
19:32That nobody else was able to
19:36Her fairy godmother appeared
19:37And gave her a beautiful gown
19:41Now, what about a carry?
19:43And then this fleet of Bentleys arrived
19:46It was insane
20:03It was insane
20:05I will never forget going through the gates of Buckingham Palace
20:08And tourists are photographing because they think it's some royal family visit or something
20:16And Daisy had her invitation
20:19And she's waving it
20:20And she loved that, she just played to the crowds
20:30You're kind of looking down, these corridors that you only see on TV
20:37And then Princess Eugenie walked into the room
20:41She was lovely, she was just so natural
20:46It was just like a normal afternoon with a princess in a palace
20:51I think everyone stole a toilet roll
20:53It was mad
20:56We were in Buckingham Palace decorating the tree
20:59And Enza had made a decoration of a little moon
21:02And they allowed Enza to hang that on the tree
21:05So there was a little moon for Luna
21:08Hanging on the Buckingham Palace Christmas tree
21:12Good girl
21:13Have you been practising at home?
21:15I think you have
21:16I believed in magic 100%
21:19Jean and Meg made me believe in magic
21:26Meg would quite often disappear during events
21:29And she'd go and sit, she'd be in like a back room or something
21:34Meg put on this public persona basically
21:37To try and hide just how well she was
21:42It's the side of her that she really wanted to keep hidden as much as she could
21:48You could hear her coming a mile away
21:50Because the glass bottles jangling together in her handbag and the pills
21:56Well do you know what she took? Can you describe that to me? What did you see?
22:00I knew she was taking Oromorph
22:02Because she used to drink it out of the bottle
22:04And I was familiar with Oromorph because Luna was on it
22:07What is it?
22:08Oromorph is morphine
22:09It's liquid morphine
22:11It's very strong, it's very addictive
22:14Very bad for you
22:16And we always used to say to her Meg, that stuff's going to kill you
22:33Summer 2014 was
22:37The start of the end
22:40Everything changed that summer
22:44Hello
22:46Alex can you take some photos please?
22:48First few years of her illness it was always
22:52When I'm better we're going to do everything that she was missing out on
22:57She'd had five years of treatment in the UK
23:01But not really made any progress, if anything things had gotten worse
23:06And she's got operations scheduled for the end of summer
23:14Meg told us the operation was risky and dangerous to her
23:21And she believed that she wasn't going to survive the operation
23:32Meg was awake for the first part
23:37Sending messages throughout
23:41And then just complete radio silence
23:46Didn't hear anything from Meg or Jean
23:58And then Harry Styles tweets
24:02Thinking of you Meg
24:05It went massive
24:09Massive fear and panic
24:11Kept building and building
24:12That actually
24:14This is it
24:14She's died
24:19So many people from all corners of the globe
24:22Knew who Meg was
24:24Because of One Direction
24:27We knew that Jean was very close with Anne
24:31Harry's mum
24:34And we were kind of thinking
24:36He's heard news from his mum
24:38Who's heard it from Jean
24:41It was really, really weird
25:04I was obviously very just relieved that she was still alive
25:08So Beth and I went to visit her
25:12She had a big valve coming out of her head
25:15Hooked up to IVs
25:18And I mean she looked like someone who had been through major brain surgery
25:23She was obviously putting on a bit of a front about how she was actually doing
25:27But that was just Meg
25:28That's what she did best
25:31She told me that her condition was so rare
25:35And the tumour was growing
25:36And there was kind of nothing else that could be done to kind of shrink it
25:40Or sort of stop it
25:41And it would kind of kill her eventually
25:46At that time
25:47A lot of the children from Believe in Magic were receiving treatment in America
25:51In America
25:53In America you would be able to access some other treatment
25:56That was potentially going to save you
26:02Adam our youngest was going through treatment for neuroblastoma
26:07We were fundraising for years
26:11We travelled to America back and forth for nine plus months
26:21The thing about going abroad for treatment is obviously you incur all costs at that point
26:30It can be catastrophic
26:31If your child develops, you know, a serious infection
26:35Or you're talking, you know, tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars
26:45December 2014, myself and my friend and both our families, we decide to meet up with Meg and Jean at
26:52the IV in London
26:56Meg had gained a lot of weight and her hair was very, very thin
27:01She had like a very wide hairline, she was very dark haired, so it was very noticeable
27:08And she mentioned that her tumour has grown by 600%
27:13We literally doubled, it was like, what?
27:15You know, my friend and I were like, okay, what are we going to do?
27:18What's the plan? What have they suggested?
27:20We need to help you
27:23Meg and Jean started this huge fundraiser to get Meg out to the US for proton bean therapy
27:34To try and shrink down this tumour
27:37I became aware of Help Save Meg because of social media, people sharing it
27:44Which is what happens, this is an emergency appeal
27:48Everybody is behind them and there's kind of a momentum to get them where they need to be
27:55We have to raise £120,000
27:58And she needs it in two weeks
28:00It was just a shock, like, oh gosh, I didn't realise that it was this serious
28:05There would be certain parents were sharing to all the known parents
28:09Look, we need to raise this money for our Meg
28:14We ourselves had gone out to the States for Daisy to be reviewed by the world experts on her syndrome
28:22Because there was no way in the UK any of that could have been done
28:28A lot of the Believe in Magic families knew how important that charity was
28:34And now Meg needed something back and people wanted to give something back to Meg
28:42They did it, and they did it really, really quickly
28:46They raised £120,000 in the space of a couple of days
28:52It was incredible
28:54I had never seen anybody raise that amount of money in that amount of time before
29:02And then two weeks later, there's another update from Jean to say they've come home
29:09And they've not had the treatment
29:12Unfortunately, when we met with the radiation oncologist
29:16Within minutes of reviewing the scan, he could see that things were a lot more complicated
29:20And what we were facing was far worse than we thought
29:26There was a message about she wasn't a candidate
29:30That she'd been assessed and we weren't able to have the proton beam therapy
29:36Because the tumour has grown tentacles and was wrapped around the optic nerve
29:40So therefore it was too dangerous
29:44And I'm just like, yeah, I get that, I get that totally
29:50By this point, Andy, my husband, was diagnosed with terminal cancer
29:55They found multiple tumours that had wrapped around his hepatic artery
29:59So it was inoperable
30:02So I knew how these things can happen
30:13So they'd come home and we're going to refund the money?
30:16That's just what you do, yeah
30:17She didn't have the treatment, so you give the money back
30:21It was very different to anything that I knew
30:25Obviously I'd been through my journey and I knew that you fundraise
30:29The money goes to like a trust who manage it and they pay your hospital bills
30:33I didn't understand how they were doing things
30:37It was just odd, to say the least
30:42We've made the very difficult decision to come back
30:47They might have even said, you know, to continue to sprinkle magic
30:55And that's what they did
30:59It was unbelievable
31:04The Cinderella Ball was at the Natural History Museum
31:11The 1D boys were there, Louis and Liam were going to host it
31:17It did feel like, you know, Meg and Jean had made the big time
31:24I became involved in the parties after Luna had passed away
31:30Just...helping
31:33I think there may have been a little bit of jealousy
31:36Because obviously we were at every party
31:38And I'm sure there were some families who perhaps may not have been invited to those parties
31:44It all seemed to be very sort of exclusive
31:47And who wouldn't have wanted a chance to have gone to this amazing ball with the world's biggest boy band
31:53So there was definitely jealousy among some of the parents
31:56Like, well, why is it always those families?
31:59Is it because my kid's not cute?
32:01Or, you know, it's, he's a boy, or they don't fit the mould
32:06Or they're not in with the in crowns, the inner sanctum
32:10The children had handmade clothing
32:13I think the boys' suits were made by Ralph Lauren
32:17It was out of this world
32:20The Cinderella Ball was huge on social media and it was trending
32:26I tweeted, wow, amazing, see One Direction at the Natural History Museum
32:30Some of my friends' kids are there, you know, these are sick kids, what an amazing thing
32:35And then Jean messaged me, she said, could you take that down, please?
32:40Because we don't want people to know that One Direction are there because all the fans or mobs are placed
32:45All right, sorry, Jean
32:48But you can't be doing these big events with Louis Tomlinson and not have that all over Twitter
32:56Wow, thank you very much, everybody, for coming
32:59It is an incredible privilege for me and my mum as well, Liam and Magic
33:04The charity is absolutely incredible
33:06It's run by two people, Donna and Dawson, which I think is incredible
33:10It was organised by Louis and his mum
33:14I just think they were really lovely people who could see that they could do something
33:20And they did
33:21Anyone here that knows Jean and Meg, they believe in magic, will need no introduction to their kindness
33:27They give their time for nothing, they ask for nothing back
33:31They do everything themselves
33:36I felt really proud for Meg and Jean
33:40This is the biggest and the best and this is, you know, all of her ambitions have come together
33:45And it was exciting to be a part of that
33:53So when the Cinderella Ball happened, there were other families whose children didn't get invited
34:00That clearly created some upset
34:08Parents said, please, can I come along?
34:12And, you know, it was like, no, we can only choose the sickest children
34:17But it wasn't, like, wheelchair accessible, there were stairs and things
34:22And so there was a lot of sniping started to happen
34:25All these little people were contacting me and saying, have you been invited?
34:29What's going on with this?
34:30It was so divisive
34:33Anybody that kind of disagreed with Jean or questioned her, she could be quite nasty in a response online
34:42A couple of parents asked, what is your criteria for selecting?
34:46They were closed down very quickly by Jean
34:50I saw one social media post where Jean said, you weren't saying that when we gave you that iPad
35:00If somebody did say the wrong thing, Jean could be really quite brutal
35:07That served to keep people in their rightful place
35:11People were scared of Jean
35:16There was an article from the Sunday Times where it indicated, you know, how much money Believe in Magic received
35:24on the back of their One Direction connection
35:28They received at least half a million from two different meet and greets and things that had been auctioned off
35:37And all of a sudden you've got Meg and Jean doing things that nobody could quite believe
35:43We're going to have, Ted here is going to switch on the Christmas lights
35:46We're going to count them down for five
35:48Five
35:49Four
35:50Three
35:51Two
35:52One
36:00Meg received a point of light award from David Cameron
36:04Well, I thought it was amazing and I thought it was well deserved because she did deserve it
36:09You know, she deserved recognition for all that she did for the children
36:16They were amazing people, they did amazing things, they cared about everybody
36:23Meg didn't seem to put herself first ever, it was always, always about the children and the parents
36:31There was all kinds of magic
36:38There were trips to Disney
36:40What was their special relationship with Disney? Because they mention this quite a bit
36:46Meg was just obsessed with Disney
36:50If Meg could have lived in Disneyland, that's where she would have liked to have lived
36:57I think maybe it was the unreal, the magical side of things
37:01You know, it was make-believe
37:04And escapism from hospitals and illness and whatever else Meg was trying to escape from
37:15And Meg's health was deteriorating
37:19But there was quite often something new
37:26I think she was very close to you
37:27Hi everyone, it's Jean
37:29We're currently in the US
37:31After recently having septicemia
37:34And another blood clot
37:35The tumour in Meg's brain has given us severe immunodeficiency
37:41We found out Meg's immune system is much weaker than previously thought
37:49I remember seeing on Facebook in 2016 that Meg went back to the US for some more treatment and testing
38:00It's a sign that things are very serious
38:04There were posts from Jean just about how unwell Meg had been
38:08And how close she'd been to death on a couple of occasions
38:14So everybody's waiting for news, people are invested, people care about Meg
38:22And then, out of the blue, the message came from a parent doubting what was going on
38:36And that message hurt deeply a lot of people
38:41Like someone threw a grenade and then kind of walked away
38:58Who was serviceless?
39:00I didn't know, but I had a feeling
39:04Who it might be
39:10And who was that?
39:12So there was a parent that Meg and Jean had told me about
39:17Who's kind of always had a bit of a problem with Meg and Jean
39:24I don't know the ins and outs of it
39:27All I know is what Meg and Jean told me
39:33That this person was very upset because their son was no longer invited to the parties
39:37And Meg and Jean's answer was always, well, their son is cured and we have lots of referrals every week
39:43So we have to make room for new children
39:51Why did you do it?
39:53Am I allowed to swear? Am I allowed to say full of shit? Are you having that in the documentary?
39:57Yeah
39:58So I just had a hunch that Jean's full of shit
40:02Were you a disgruntled parent? A kind of a jealous mum who felt that her son had missed out?
40:09No, absolutely not
40:12We were invited to two more parties that I turned down
40:16I was like, appreciate it
40:17And I really, really, I was so grateful that my son was doing okay
40:26Cory was out of treatment
40:28So he was now in remission
40:31Like that is everything
40:35The last place I was was wanting to take something off another child
40:40But what made you have suspicions?
40:48It all started for me in 2015 when I saw the Help Save Meg Appeal
40:54I'd been in this cancer world for a couple of years
40:57So you get to know the oncologist or the reason why people travel or which hospitals
41:03So I was kind of just purely out of interest looking for that information
41:08And it was very vague
41:10But at the same time, very, very over the top
41:15Unfortunately, when we met with the radiation oncologist
41:18Within minutes of reviewing the scan, he could see that things were a lot more complicated
41:23And what we were facing was far worse than we thought
41:27The tumour in her brain has not only grown in a very difficult location
41:31But developed tentacles which has wrapped itself around one of the two main arteries in Megha's brain
41:36And the primary blood supply to her brain
41:39To complicate things even more, Meg has a serious systemic infection
41:44Which has pocketed itself somewhere within her body
41:47It's so extreme
41:49They were at death's door
41:51There was infection on infection on infection
41:53Like more infections and they never had anything like it
41:57There was just so many questions
42:00Were they amazing women that were just in this for the children?
42:04Was Megan really sick?
42:07Or are they doing this for money?
42:12So I messaged Nick
42:15Joe messaged me
42:19I smell a rat
42:20I smell a rat
42:34By this point, I had really stepped away from the community
42:41I was attempting to put my life back together
42:48My son Adam tragically passed away in 2013
42:55And unless you've been through this, you're not going to understand this
43:04The worst thing is not when your child dies
43:09My son Adam tragically passed away in 2013
43:12I was trying to breathe in is that the dead of the dead of the dead of the dead of
43:12the dead ...
43:24What did I expect it?
43:36And doesn't expect it
43:42so that that's just a catastrophic moment but actually then your life becomes very busy
43:49because you have things to organize you have this massive outpouring of collective grief
43:56when i posted about adam dying i actually thought that what people would say would not be
44:04but it was so meaningful um then once you've done what you need to do and once you've said your
44:16goodbyes then there's just a void
44:27you have to somehow move forward with your life and you get busy
44:38and you know you could look at jean's social media feed and there was some odd stuff on there about
44:43she wrote for a national newspaper and she had a harley street clinic and she was an agony aunt
44:51i found out she went by three different names barry stanton o'brien and she used different names for
44:58different things it's like yeah it's kind of these things are kind of odd
45:14and then he was like maybe they're just being private and i would just put yeah maybe
45:21because i knew that i'd kind of given him the seed of doubt
45:24i absolutely thought there are questions here
45:33joe is pretty headstrong and forthright
45:38she was convinced it was a scam i'm much more hesitant and very very cautious he was just
45:46right listen joanna they have got such a support network they are so well connected
45:51and they are so well thought of hi i'm lou from one direction me and the boys if you put
45:56your head
45:56above the parapet with this and you're wrong you'll get shot let's get this right before we do
46:03something that we might wish that we hadn't
46:08and then in summer 2016 nick messaged me
46:15and it was another appeal for megan
46:21this time megan had sepsis and it was all very serious
46:24you know we would never ask unless we absolutely had to
46:28but we would both be so grateful if any of you would be able to help with some fundraising
46:34a lot of the donations coming in with parents that had sick children that was the community they
46:39were in that was the community they were asking for money from
46:42all the money went straight into jean's bank account
46:46i didn't like the sound of that
46:49in order to raise money for corey
46:51we put the money into a trust fund with non-family member trustees so there was no question over
46:58the money whereas with believe in magic
47:00the trustees were jean jean's son and jean's son's wife
47:07it's megan's family that are controlling the charity money and deciding where it's spent
47:13and i just thought that was wrong
47:16first thing we did was look at megan jean's immediate family
47:21did anybody back up their story
47:24about meg desperately ill in hospital mounting medical bills
47:30there didn't seem to be that family effort
47:33for example megan's sister-in-law was posting about a cat
47:40not even jean's followers know what hospital there's no information
47:46so i came up with this ridiculous idea that i would offer to donate some money
47:53directly to the hospital where meg was treated
47:56and obviously in the process of doing that i would find out once and for all
48:00they were being treated at x hospital
48:04therefore the story's real
48:09and then i waited
48:15and then i got a message to say she was ever so grateful
48:20but unfortunately it wouldn't be possible for me to donate direct to the hospital
48:26nick probably doesn't understand how the u.s healthcare system works
48:32we spent months in the u.s with adam
48:37just nonsense
48:44her immune system is basically non-existent right now
48:48and everyone is shocked at just how long she's been totally neutropenic
48:53her white blood cells go from being crazily high to completely leukopenic
48:58and even still new infections have been growing
49:16so jean's son nick was one of the trustees
49:20and it was possible to guess people's email addresses just by going on to facebook and saying that you forgot
49:31your
49:32password
49:34they gave you enough of an email hint that you could figure out people's email addresses
49:41so it's decided that we used an alias
49:45and email nick
49:48it was just poking him or provoking him
49:51pointing out that the charity has to be run properly etc
49:55he went straight to jean
49:57and jean then had that email address
49:59and then what happened next we didn't expect it all
50:08oh my god
50:12shit
50:15shit
50:16have i got this wrong
50:20what if she really is sick
50:22what if you have taken her away from her daughter's bedside and you've made life difficult for her
50:26what if there is proof what if there's twenty pages of proof and
50:29and your heart stops you're like oh my goodness
50:33i did say to everybody
50:35don't panic just yet
50:39because of the nature of adam's disease i acquired a knowledge and understanding which is not normal of parents
50:50there were no names no hospitals no doctors
50:55why do you need to redact
50:58why can't we know the hospital name
51:00why can't we know the doctor's name
51:02what are you scared of ultimately
51:06there was lab results and blood work
51:08and actually when you looked at it meg had some abnormal blood results some were elevated some were low
51:18but jean says meg is neutropenic and leukopenic with severe lactic acidosis and severe sepsis etc etc
51:30if she was really really that ill her neutrophils should have been zero
51:35so she clearly wasn't neutropenic at all
51:43somebody in the street might be convinced by this
51:47unfortunately i'm not
51:52clearly we were being messed about
51:57not only was she not giving us answers
52:00but she was almost insulting my intelligence
52:03by sending through this document
52:08i just got to the point where i was very suspicious of the pair of them
52:14don't believe that she's dying in a hospital bed with sepsis
52:17so where are they then
52:21nick came to say
52:24i've got an idea
52:29so my background is in it
52:32i'm not a hacker by trade by any means
52:36but i had this idea that i would use a piece of software
52:41where you can send an email to megagene
52:44and if they open the email there is a chance that you'll be able to capture certain information
52:50such as the ip address and from that ip address you can narrow down where meg and jean were
53:00i thought it was amazing didn't even know you could do that
53:10i set up an email alias
53:13i used a combination of my middle name and adam's middle name
53:17it was james lucas
53:24and then it was just a question to wait and see whether or not somebody opened it
53:37i got a notification that jean opened the email
53:42got the ip address
53:45and i did a very broad google search on it
53:54one of the search results is a review
53:57posted in a google groups by somebody called sue blesser
54:02for kidani village in animal kingdom in disney in florida
54:09the association of meg and jean with disney was enough to pique my interest
54:17it kind of all made sense
54:20they went there every summer every winter
54:25where else were they going to be
54:29and i don't know what made me do it
54:31but i picked up the phone
54:32and i dialed animal kingdom
54:37and i asked for jean
54:41and then realized that she had three surnames
54:44and decided to pick bari
54:46and the person said connecting you now
54:57jean answered
55:01in jean's rather unmistakable voice
55:06and i put the phone down
55:11wow
55:13this is in disney
55:15where people go
55:16for holidays
55:24i go and tell the group
55:26phone
55:27ask for bari
55:28and i remember
55:29i typed it out in all capitals
55:31b-h-a-r-i
55:35yeah have a go
55:36it's too shocking to believe
55:38so there is a part of you that thinks
55:39is he joking
55:41and then all the information was coming through
55:44we were looking online
55:46we were seeing giraffes
55:47we were seeing wildlife
55:48we were seeing luxury
55:51so at that point
55:52it's like right we've got you
55:54what on earth are you doing in a four star villa
55:57while appealing for money
55:59because your daughter is so sick
56:03obviously i'd established that jean
56:04was in animal kingdom
56:07that didn't actually say anything about
56:09where meg was at this time
56:11or what was going on with meg
56:22joe stepped up to the plate
56:24to try and find out
56:25if meg was there as well
56:35at that moment you don't know
56:36whether you're even going to get past
56:38the receptionist
56:40but i thought i just need to do this
56:42i just need to find out
56:58i hadn't really thought about what i was going to say
57:01so i was like
57:02hi is megan there
57:03hi can i speak to megan please
57:06megan
57:09is megan there
57:14all right i'll ring you back thank you
57:19she said megan's sleeping
57:23and that was an instinctive response
57:28and so we took it
57:30that meg and jean
57:31were both in disney
57:34in florida
57:35i was like oh my goodness
57:36they're there
57:37oh my goodness they're there
57:40megan is not in intensive care
57:42so i kind of composed myself
57:45and then rang back
57:52hi is megan there please
57:53who is it i said is megan there
57:56no megan's not here
57:57megan's in a hospital
57:59megan's very very unwell
58:00who is it
58:01completely changed the story
58:02now she's lying
58:03because she said megan's asleep
58:05now she's saying megan's in hospital
58:07so she knows by the second phone call
58:11that people are on to her
58:16i said we're going to get to the bottom of it
58:22and we had no idea
58:25what it would lead to
58:27or where it would take us
58:28or where it would take us
59:05or where it would take us
59:05or partying
59:07or partying
59:08or partying
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