“Cancer Is Not A Joke”: Woman Who Faked Illness Is Jailed For 3 Months

Kody Grode devastated her best friend and co-workers at a daycare centre when she told them that she was suffering from stage-three ovarian cancer, but she was lying.

Through fundraising and personal donations, the Arizona girl collected monies between $2,000 and $3,000 from people who were willing to help her fight the fake sickness.

Grode went in to details how she was undergoing chemotheraphy and had surgery to remove a tumour.

As time passed, friends began to realise that events were not adding up and alerted authorities.

Kody Grode lied about illness in order to get money.

The 24-year-old was sentenced on Friday to three months in jail and three-years-probation on a count of theft for accepting the donation money, KYMA News reports.

In a statement, Gina Tolomei told how her best friend 9 years had played “an ugly and dirty game,” adding that "everything she did was premeditated."

At the time Gina’s own father was dying of cancer.

Clara Tolomei read out the letter her daughter penned regarding her former friend’s behaviour after the hearing as she was too upset to do it herself.

"Cancer is not a joke, it is very real. Kody made a mockery out of cancer and out of the people who fight for their lives," she wrote.

 

A donation cheque shown in court.

Maria Elena Cruz, Yuma County Superior Court Judge said in court that caused suffering to people and ordered Grode to repay her victims, “having the ability to alleviate their pain. How could you put them through that suffering?”

Grode was ordered her to do community service with cancer patients to learn about the people she was toying with. “If you don't get to the bottom of how you could do something like this, in such a calculated, callous, and cold manner, more problems are going to arise down the line.”

Former best friend Tolomei’s statement ended, “We can’t think that way. We have to believe that there’s honest people, and they’re not going to lie. I want people to just believe, have faith in mankind.”