A Taiwanese fitness influencer has come clean and revealed she lied about her years-long cancer fight.
The influencer, MianBaobao, which translates to Bread bao, announced three years ago that she was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer and began sharing videos of herself working out along with her routine “cancer treatment sessions” all accompanied by hashtags similar to #cancerfightingdaily.
MianBaobao’s story began to unravel in May after her alleged ex-husband began posting details to social media that contradicted her cancer fight, including her very secretive ways about receiving treatments, according to the South China Morning Post.
“Every time she went for treatment she insisted that her family drop her off at the entrance to the hospital and insisted on seeing the doctor alone,” the man said. “The total medical expenses for the whole family in 2021 amounted to just $275, and I never saw any attending doctor, diagnosis proof, or hospital receipts from her in the past two years.”
The outlet reported MianBaobao constructed the fabricated story to boost her online profile
MianBaobao broke her silence last week when she apologized to her over 11,000 Instagram followers for deceiving everyone with the false cancer diagnosis.
“To all the family, friends, fans, netizens who ever cared about me, supported me, cheered me, I want to apologize to everyone here,” MianBaobao said, which was translated from the original Mandarin. “I did the last thing I should have done, I lied about having cancer and cheated everyone for three years.”
The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is “very low at just 5 to 10 percent,” according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, because most cases are discovered when the cancer has reached the higher stages when it has already metastasized.
The apparent ex-husband also claimed she used the diagnosis as a way to move out of their home and later filed for a divorce.
He wasn’t the only one with suspicions of MianBaobao’s cancer fight, as people online traced the x-rays she was posting to social media, and found the original photos online from a different source, according to the outlet.
The apology letter is the only post on the Instagram account, which had been wiped clean of all other content, according to SCMP.
MianBaobao went on to apologize to “anyone who ever gave me a little bit good,” including her family and the companies that provided her sponsorships, calling them all victims of her actions and even offering to compensate the companies she had the deals with.
“I’m fully responsible for a big vendor if it needs compensation, of course I know a lot of money can’t pay.”
She also announced she would be leaving the team she was with saying she wasn’t qualified to be apart of something that believed in her.
“I’m sorry for the storm caused and I’m sorry for the waste of everyone,” the influencer added. “Made the most wrong demonstration, hurt the people who love men and the people I love. I’m really sorry about all this,” the post concluded.
MianBaobao isn’t the only social media personality that has gotten caught faking a cancer fight.
In January, a TikToker named Madison Russo was arrested on first-degree theft charges after she took $37,000 from GoFundMe and TikTok for making up a fake Stage 2 pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
After claiming to have a tumor the size of a football on her spine, Russo was caught by her followers who pointed out the medical equipment was not correct.
Another woman said she was dying from cancer, but was caught after her story resembled the plot to the book “The Fault in Our Stars.”
