Her illness fooled celebs. The truth may be even darker
Social media
Image caption,
L-R: Megan pictured at the Cinderella Ball with Louis Tomlinson, his mum Johanna - who died in 2016 - and Megan's mum Jean.
By Jamie Bartlett & Ruth Mayer
BBC News
In 2020, a high-profile children's charity was closed down. Just two years earlier, its young founder had died in mysterious circumstances, leaving everyone involved desperate for answers. Only now is the truth becoming clear - a story of medical deception and celebrity obsession, exposed by a group of concerned parents determined to protect the cancer community from imposters.
On 10 August 2015, crowds of fans cheered and waved as two members of pop band One Direction posed for photos outside a fundraising ball at London's Natural History Museum. But inside, the real stars were a group of very ill children - dressed up in gowns and suits, some accompanied by their carers, others midway through chemotherapy.
For Megan and her mother Jean, this "Cinderella Ball" was another chance to raise money for their fast-growing charity, Believe in Magic. Over the past two years they'd granted hundreds of wishes to seriously-ill children, including parties and trips to Disneyland.
The guests also knew that Megan - who was just 20 - had organised the ball while very publicly battling a brain tumour of her own. It's an "incredible privilege" to work with Believe in Magic, One Direction's Louis Tomlinson told attendees. But behind the ball gowns and themed masks there was a secret involving one of the medical profession's most mysterious syndromes.
Megan
Believe in Magic was inspired by Megan's own struggle with illness. After her parents separated when she was very young, Megan lived with her mother Jean, sharing a fairly normal suburban life. But aged 13, Megan was diagnosed with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension - a build-up of pressure on the brain.
A couple of years later, Jean told friends Megan had also been diagnosed with a brain tumour. The experience inspired Megan, then 16, to start Believe in Magic, to bring some joy to desperately unwell children.
Image source,
Image caption,
Megan's half sisters said they "adored" her
Despite Jean's regular online posts about Megan's daily cocktail of drugs and frequent hospital visits, the pair worked tirelessly for their charity. Megan, Jean, and their charity became famous for their glitzy parties and support of One Direction.
"It was out of this world," said Lucy Petagine, whose daughter Luna attended several events. "Every single child felt like they were so important and they weren't poorly."
In 2015, Megan was given an award by then-UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who praised her "extraordinary courage".
At the height of Believe in Magic's success, however, Jean announced Megan's brain tumour had worsened, and she needed to raise 120,000 for emergency life-saving treatment in the US. Megan's supporters rushed to help and they reached the target in less than 48 hours.
But one group of concerned parents in the child cancer community didn't think Megan was as ill as she claimed.
Parents turned detectives
When Jo Ashcroft first saw Megan's JustGiving appeal on Facebook in early 2015, it brought back painful memories. After her son was diagnosed with neuroblastoma - a cancer of the nervous system - Jo had raised 250,000 for successful cutting-edge treatment in the US.
Something about Megan's appeal didn't sit right with Jo. It didn't mention any specific doctor or hospital. "I was a bit suspicious," she recalls. "I just wanted to make sure the money was going to the right place."
When Jo spoke to three friends whose children had also been diagnosed with neuroblastoma, they agreed it was unusual. But they advised caution - wrongly accusing someone of lying about a brain tumour was unthinkable.
Gentle questions to Jean and other supporters went unanswered, so Jo went back to running the family business and looking after her three children. Then, a year later, Jo saw Megan and Jean were fundraising again - Jean said Megan was seriously unwell in hospital in America, and needed more money.
Jo and the other concerned parents vowed that this time, they'd uncover the truth. "It became all-consuming," she says. "I don't want people being ripped off, especially not in the cancer community."
She adopted a pseudonym and even pretended to be a journalist writing a story about Megan - although again got nowhere. But one of the group used their computer skills to work out where Jean and Megan were opening their emails. It wasn't a hospital. It was a luxury hotel at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Private investigator
A few weeks later, Megan and her mother Jean disembarked the Queen Mary II ocean liner at Southampton docks.
According to Jean, they were lucky to be back at all. Throughout the summer, she'd asked supporters to help her raise money - explaining Megan had "16 sources of infections" and severe sepsis. At one point, she said, doctors gave Megan a 10% chance of surviving the next seven days.
Thanks to their hard work though, she said, Megan's condition had stabilised and the specialists in Florida had allowed her to return home, armed with five cases of medical kit and a "huge oxygen concentrator".
But waiting at the cruise terminal as they arrived was a private investigator. Jo was so determined to discover the truth, she paid 1,000 for him to take photos of the pair.
The photos showed Megan and Jean walking off the ship like a couple of happy tourists. There were no oxygen tanks. According to the investigator, they were laughing and chatting as they strolled straight past the porters, pushing luggage trollies piled high with cases.
We asked Jean via email why she and Megan were staying at a Disney resort at a time they claimed Megan was seriously ill in a US hospital. She did not respond, although said, "it is very easy to get sucked into social media lies."
Armed with this new evidence, the concerned parents contacted every authority they could think of, but it seemed like nobody would intervene. So they decided to set up a Facebook group called: "The Truth About Meg And Jean" - where they shared their discoveries. But most of Meg and Jean's supporters refused to believe it. Many had seen Megan's poor health first-hand - the intravenous tubes in her arm and medication.
Jo was bombarded with hateful messages, but she was confident she'd done the right thing. Then, in early 2018, Jo's phone buzzed. Megan was dead.
The inquest
Megan had died on 28 March 2018 at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London.
"All I kept saying is, 'Darling, if you want to go, please go and be happy,'" wrote her mother on Facebook.
Jo was stunned. "It wasn't supposed to end like this," she says.
For Megan's supporters, there was little doubt who was to blame. "She was hounded to death," wrote one on Facebook. But Jo remained convinced that Megan didn't have a brain tumour.
Listen to the Believe in Magic podcast with Jamie Bartlett on BBC Sounds.
When the cause of someone's death is unclear
Monday, May 8, 2023 at 12:19 am