Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar: Jessica Ainscough's friends share truth on brain cancer faker

Influencers Belle Gibson and Jessica Ainscough both made content about 'curing' their cancers with healthy food and supplements, but one of them was cruelly lying about their disease. Belle Gibson amassed more than 300,000 followers with a twisted tale that she had reversed her inoperable brain cancer after being told she had just four months to live. She shared posts about her herbal treatments, cutting out refined sugar and gluten from her diet, and credited massages and alternative therapies for her miraculous recovery.

The hoaxer had convinced cancer sufferers that they, too, could do the same and launched her own app and cookbook off the back of her web of lies. She continued to put on her Oscar-worthy performance at the memorial of fellow 'clean-eating' influencer Jessica Ainscough, who sadly died in February 2015. The 29-year-old had spent the previous seven years living with cancer, with 1.5 million following her journey with her blog and social media, where she was known as the 'Wellness Warrior'. She had opted out of conventional medicine and set about trying to heal herself with an unproven treatment known as Gerson therapy.

The pair, both Australian, are now depicted in Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar, but Jess's friends are furious that the two are being tarnished with the same brush. At the church service to mark Jess's death, friends and family had been joined by Belle, who had flown nearly 1,000 miles from her home in Melbourne for a woman she barely knew. Their relationship was no more than commenting on each other's posts, according to Jess's family, who were convinced they weren't ever friends. Once inside the service, Belle, then 23, began weeping hysterically.

Jess's best friend Melanie Elliott remembers the moment vividly, as everyone had gathered around to comfort her, completely convinced of her story. "As strange as it was that she was even there, we were comforting her, believing this poor girl was dealing with an incredibly difficult prognosis," she told MailOnline. "She was more concerned that she had a brain tumour and that she might not have a long time to live." But holes soon started to appear in Belle's version of the truth, as it was revealed that money she'd made from her app and book, at least £200,000, wasn't donated to charity as she had promised.

Amid mounting pressure, journalists began investigating her claims. Just a few months later in April 2015, she admitted to lying about having brain cancer, revealing "none of it is true". In 2017, Belle was found guilty of five breaches of consumer law and fined £240,000 for misleading her readers about donating money to charity. In Apple Cider Vinegar - which got its title from the ingredient both women swore by - the birth of the influencer industry is examined, linking 'two young women who set out to cure their life-threatening illnesses through health and wellness.' Actress Alycia Debnam-Carey, who plays the character of Milla, inspired by Jess, concluded: "It's a heartbreaking story of the damage they both caused.".

Jess was accused of spreading misinformation, just like Belle, as she turned her back on conventional medicine. After complaining of her hand seizing up, in 2008, she was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma - a rare soft-tissue cancer which largely affects young adults. She was initially advised to have her arm amputated before recommending high doses of chemotherapy. The treatment seemed to work, with scans showing she was cancer-free.

However a year later, the tumours returned. It was in 2010 that she set out to cure them with unproven therapy. She wrote for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "The way I saw it I had two choices: I could rely on the slash, poison and burn method offered to me by the medical profession and become stuck in the 'cancer patient' category, or I could take responsibility for my illness and bring my body to optimum health so that it can heal itself.".

In a bid to 'detoxify' herself, she followed a gruelling regime that has been rejected by cancer institutes around the world. She effectively became housebound as she committed to drinking 13 raw juices a day at hourly intervals, had five coffee enemas per day and ate only an organic, plant-based diet, MailOnline reports. She persuaded her fans to follow suit and was commissioned to write a book, Make Peace With Your Plate, published in 2013. Her success attracted young mum Belle, who began curating her own feed, @healing_belle, which was full of picture-perfect snaps of her holistic lifestyle.

Belle had monopolised what Jess had been doing and took it a step further with her app, which was voted Apple's Best Food and Drink App of the year. Meanwhile, Belle also won her own accolades, being crowned Cosmopolitan magazine’s Fun Fearless Female award. The two health influencers met at a conference in April 2013 - a scene depicted in Apple Cider Vinegar. But those who knew Jess claim she said nothing to do with Belle's sick story.