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have cancer and she had parents, supportive parents. They were divorced and both remarried, with three young children between them.
    Why did she do it? Ashley said, “I was trying to be noticed. I was trying to get my family back together. I didn’t want to feel like I’m nothing anymore. It went wrong, it spread like crazy, and then it seemed like the whole world knew.”
    The whole world knew indeed, because she told them. In late 2008, Ashley did have a medical issue. She had a benign lump in one of her breasts, had a procedure for it and all was well. Except she began telling anyone that would listen that things weren’t well. Ashley said she had breast, brain, liver, stomach and ovarian cancer, in various stages. Poor Ashley, she was really brave for dealing with such adversity with such a positive outlook. This is what her peers thought about her. Teenagers and young adults from all over embraced her. They organized benefits and concerts for her. Printed t-shirts and made online videos all in an effort to keep her optimism up and help provide for her during this dire time.
    Ashley also formed her own charity. A Facebook page was created to get the word out about Change for Cure (meaning your pocket change can help fund a cure for cancer or at least line her pockets) with the tagline, “Together we can ‘Change’ the world one penny at a time.” The cash donations started rolling in, and within two days the Facebook group had 1,000 members and months later, over 4,000.
    At the concerts held in her benefit, Ashley set up Change for a Cure booths to collect donations, in addition to the $10 or $20 cover fee to enter. All of the money Ashley raised was going to be donated to the University of Alberta’s research into dichloroacetate, DCA, a cancer treatment. Once she had collected all the money, she said she would walk from Burlington to Edmonton, Canada, starting on her twenty-third birthday, to deliver the money in person to the university. Keep in mind that Canada’s health care system is different than America’s; most of the cost of the cancer treatments in the country is covered under the Canada Health Act of 1984. So her fundraising wasn’t going to cover her exuberant medical bills, as is often the case in the states.
    Even local companies contributed, as did the local skateboard community and charities. One such charity was Skate4Cancer, led by skateboarder Rob Dyer. Rob lost his mother and two grandparents to cancer. He launched this group as a cancer awareness organization. Ashley wanted to go to Walt Disney World; it could be her last opportunity to visit Florida. She persuaded Skate4Cancer to foot the bill for her trip. When she returned back from her trip, she informed everyone she had contracted an infection and was going to die soon.
    Ashley was good.  She may have missed her calling in theatre; everyone believed her story. Young people get diagnosed with cancer every day in this world, but there was one person who wasn’t sure if the story was accurate, yet he too vacillated, and that was Ashley’s father. Speaking only to her father once in the previous four years, she told him she had breast cancer and a brain tumor. If she didn’t get a bone marrow transplant, she would be gone within six months. Her father thought it was another one of her “stories” and went along for the ride. The next day, he followed up with Ashley to find out the name of her oncologist to be informed of her condition and care.
    After trying for ten days to reach her, Ashley finally responded and told him to “Stay the f--- out of my life.” He stayed away from Ashley but called the hospitals where Ashley said she was being treated for cancer; there was no record of her. Skeptical but still not certain, he followed her on Facebook, along with thousands of other people.
    Finally, he was able to get the truth out of her. He reached out to her on the phone repeatedly. They connected one evening and as he recounts,