Yesterday, several people stumbled on a blog post I had written several months ago about a boy named Reilly, whose childhood cancer “illness” turned out to be a hoax. At the request of several people who alerted me to the falsity of his mother’s “story,” I deleted the blog post. That should be that, right?
But it’s not. Because I can’t get the enormity of the monstrosity of this out of my head.
This blog has but one intention: To raise awareness of childhood cancer in an attempt to make people see how prevalent it is and how many children and families are utterly devastated by it. The hope is that raising awareness will lead to increased funding toward safer, more effective treatments, and, ultimately, cures for all childhood cancers.
When I think about the kind of sick, insert-your-favorite-expletive-here person who could use childhood cancer as a hoax, to get people to give her money, it literally turns my stomach. That a person could steal photos of a healthy child and claim the boy in those photos to be her “dead” son, claiming agony at having to teach her other son how to live without his brother, is beyond my capacity to comprehend.
All I can do is apologize to the innocent people I inadvertently hurt by posting that story in good faith. I thank each of you for bringing the scam to my attention. Sadly, because of the sickness of one woman who thought making up a story about a child dying of cancer was an okay thing to do, I will make absolutely certain that the children I choose to highlight in here the future are truly among the suffering.
What an awful world we live in that I even have to consider this. It’s truly, truly sickening.
But I’m going to put it behind me and proudly wear my red shirt for Bella today. Because this is the last time I intend to allow something like this to take time and attention away from the true warriors of this awful disease.
#LiveLikeBella
Curtains Are for Windows. Not Childhood Cancer. 
Hi, I found your blog on Google whilst I was trying to track down the Remembering Reilly blog. I too had been following the story. I too feel sick to my stomach that someone could this. Honestly I am speechless, I just wanted to let you know that it’s not your fault at all, I was fooled too.
Because most normal people couldn’t fathom that kind of deception, I’m not surprised we both were fooled. No one can predict sickness of that magnitude! But thank you so much for your post…I really appreciate your support!