Jessica Ainscough

Jessica Ainscough was born in Australia in the South East Queensland city of Ipswich.[1] Ainscough attended the University of the Sunshine Coast, graduating in 2005 with a Bachelor of Communications and majoring in Journalism. During her last year at university, Ainscough gained work experience at the Sydney office of 9 to 5 Magazine where she had her first job after graduating. At the time of her diagnosis, Ainscough was working as an online editor for teen magazine Dolly.[1]

Ainscough and her partner Tallon Pamenter were engaged in July 2014 and had planned to marry in September 2015.[2]

At "Wellness Warrior Events", Ainscough was joined by other celebrity wellness entrepreneurs who would also share their alternative health journeys, including former actor Melissa Ambrosini, musician Wes Carr and celebrity chef Pete Evans. Ainscough invited Cyndi O'Meara, nutritionist and fellow Sunshine Coast wellness entrepreneur, to write the foreword of her book, and later acknowledged O'Meara as the person she admired most professionally.[1] Ainscough also spoke and wrote extensively about the influence of her mother Sharyn Ainscough and alternative cancer treatment advocate Ian Gawler. Her funeral was attended by Belle Gibson, who falsely claimed to have cured her own cancer through alternative therapies.[6]

Ainscough claimed that Ian Gawler's book, You can Conquer Cancer, was a major influence on her when she was initially diagnosed with cancer. Immediately before going to the Gerson clinic in Mexico in 2010, Ainscough and her partner Tallon Pamenter stayed at The Gawler Foundation. Afterwards, Ainscough wrote: "Last month I spent 10 days at the Gawler Foundation in Melbourne learning all about how to heal myself. It was the most beneficial 10 days of my life".[7] Gawler Foundation founder Ian Gawler is a former veterinarian who survived cancer after surgical treatment, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. Gawler claims to have overcome a secondary diagnosis of terminal metastatic cancer with a combination of Gerson Therapy and meditation. However, there was no biopsy taken to confirm the secondary cancer diagnosis, and experts have since attributed Gawler's symptoms to advanced tuberculosis—which he also received medical treatment for at the time—rather than secondary bone cancer.[8]

In December 2014, Ainscough wrote in her blog that she had returned to conventional medical care to treat a large fungating tumour under her left shoulder that had been bleeding non-stop for ten months, leaving her weak and uncomfortable.[10][5] Under the care of an oncologist, Ainscough received six weeks of radiation therapy in the final weeks of her life.[11]

Responding to Ainscough's death John Dwyer of Friends of Science in Medicine warned of the risk of bowel perforation associated with coffee enemas and said: "There is no credible scientific evidence for any of these alternative treatments that claim to cure cancer," adding that "it can be difficult for people to tell what claims are unscientific and what are not".[12] Whether Ainscough ever directly claimed to have cured her cancer is difficult to ascertain, as her blog "The Wellness Warrior", with 1.5 million followers, has been deleted. However, examples of Ainscough alluding to Gerson Therapy successfully treating her cancer can be found. In an article titled "I'm healing myself from cancer naturally" written by Ainscough for the teen magazine she once edited, Ainscough wrote: "I am ecstatic to report that it has worked for me. I have had no cancer spread, no more lumps pop up (they were popping up rapidly before) and I can actually see some of my tumors coming out through my skin and disappearing".[3] It was reported that Ainscough earned a "six figures" income from the "Wellness Warrior" brand.[13]

• Make Peace With Your Plate, published 25 September 2013, by Hay House Inc.[1]

• Belle Gibson