“Kicking Out Cancer” and “Hope for Cherry”

Meet Joshua Johnson.

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Joshua is a part time rodeo rider and a soccer player and he’s had an extremely tough life.

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Joshua, when he’s not riding bulls on the rodeo circuit, is also the single father to a lovely six year old girl named Bobbie.  Bobbie is extremely, um, precocious.

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So Joshua and his six year old daughter started a cancer charity called Kicking Out Cancer, Kicking Out Cancer sells homemade cloth soccer balls with all proceeds going to the Jesse Rees Foundation.

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Where to start?  Well, first of all, that picture of Joshua Johnson is actually David Beckham, the internationally famous soccer star.

Also, take a look at this picture of Joshua Johnson and his doctor.  Keep in mind, his doctor, of course, is obsessed with Joshua and considers him a role model.  In fact, he posted about Joshua on his personal Facebook page.

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I’m not from Texas, but unless this is Dr. Doogie Howser (and he doesn’t write like he’s Doogie Howser) he looks a little young to be an oncologist.  Also, suddenly Joshua Johnson has morphed into a twelve year old who looks nothing like David Beckham.  In fact, if you look at the various Joshua pictures, you can see that they’re probably five or six different people.

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Joshua and Bobbie have a new friend named Cherry.  She is a three year old with cancer.  Her family runs a page called Hope for Cherry.

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The pictures of Cherry and her sister were pulled from various places on the internet, just like the pictures of Joshua and Bobbie.  In fact, Joshua has a lot of friends who are fake.

Joshua Johnson

Bobbie Johnson

Shanna Huttenstine

Jessie Johnson

Dalton Brown

Lucas Johnson

Lisa Clark

Fievel Filly Cooper (personal favorite of mine as an American Tail superfan)

Clint Cooper

Izaiah Cooper

Ty Heart

Mayberry Rosey Johnson (love that one too)

Shane McCloud

Sean McCloud

Ash Skyler

Caleb Hostetler

Wheels Hostetler

Kasey Ashe

JT Jackson

Koda Nightpeaks

Dylan Jackson

Anastasia Brazile

Clint Cooper

Seraphym X Smith

Yeah.  In fact, the only REAL person who is a close friend of Joshua and Bobbie is a woman named Jennifer.  Joshua went and visited Jennifer.  Jennifer writes exactly the same way Joshua, Bobbie and even Dr. Johnson write.  The contact information for Kicking Out Cancer?  Jennifer’s address.

Jennifer attended the Relay for Life as a representative of Kicking Out Cancer.  She proudly displayed posters she made commemorating the cancer fight of imaginary Joshua Johnson.

This whole thing seems to be an elaborate fantasy for Jennifer, and we’ve been looking at it since October.  I was on the fence about writing it up because it seems so OBVIOUSLY fake.  The problem is that “Joshua” has reached out and sent letters to real pediatric cancer patients.  A bigger issue?  Hope for Cherry now has a fundraising Joy Jar.

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That’s not good.  I think Jennifer has some explaining to do, and if you donated to Kicking Out Cancer or Hope for Cherry, you were most likely scammed.

112 thoughts on ““Kicking Out Cancer” and “Hope for Cherry””

  1. You’d think that someone who’d had leukemia would know it’s not a solid tumor cancer and rarely needs an operation.

  2. It’s so sad. The pages are up and people are falling for it. I looked at the Lucas profile and it’s so elaborate.

    have you contacted Jennifer about it? I feel so bad for these people that are falling for it all.

    1. ok if any of you think this isn’t tue please cheak out the real facebook it not fake would a facebook leave a phone wake up and smell the coffee and yes i have daughter name cherry she is fight cancer if i find out who started this i promise i will make sure you will take you to court this is wrong you need to leave my family alone

      1. Dear Anonymous or shall I call you Jennifer?
        We need to send you back to school to learn how to use proper English.
        Where shall I start?

        ok if any of you think this isn’t tue (It’s spelled TRUE) please cheak (Cheak? Are you talking about my butt? Oh you mean CHECK) out the real facebook it (You should probably add an IS in here) not fake (Some puncuation wouldn’t kill you either.) would a facebook leave a phone (Facebook can now leave people phones. Sweet!) wake up and smell the coffee (I hate Coffee) and yes i have daughter name cherry she is fight (You forgot the ING in Fighting) cancer if i find out who started this i promise i will make sure you will take you to court (This sentence just confused the heck out of me. Reread your stuff before you post.) this is wrong you need to leave my family alone

  3. we have nothing to hind we have have not done thing wrong you need to leave the kicking out cancer team alone all we do is make thing for kids that are fighting cancer the leader name is joshua yes he fighting cancer yes he went into surgery because he need a knee replacement if you fallow his story you would now and dare put my family down I’m part of the cooper family and you say shit about My bother name is wrong my bother was naem after my great grandpa that we lost at pearl harbor he was in one of the ship you what talk to these people you can we all would glad to talk to you and not none us are fake i’m really to give you my phone number to you so you can talk to me i hope you do get send to court and go to jail for this this wrong

    1. My goodness, Jennifer, your grammar is atrocious. It’s also distinctive. Here, allow me:
      “we (We) have nothing to hind (hide) we have have (you only need one have) not done thing (anything) wrong you need to leave the kicking out cancer team alone all we do is make thing (things) for kids that are fighting cancer the leader (leader’s) name is joshua (joshua) yes he (is) fighting cancer yes he went into surgery because he need (needed) a knee replacement if you fallow (follow) his story you would now (know? not?) and dare put my family down I’m part of the cooper family and you say shit about My bother (brother’s) name is wrong my bother (brother) was naem (named) after my great grandpa that we lost at pearl harbor (Pearl Harbor) he was in one of the ship (ships) you what (want to?) talk to these people you can we all would (be) glad to talk to you and not (don’t need the not) none us are fake i’m really (happy? eager? scared?) to give you my phone number to you (omit to you) so you can talk to me i hope you do get send (sent) to court and go to jail for this this (is) wrong”

      1. Notice how the spelling and grammar is EXACTLY the same as “Joshua’s” and his 6 year old daughter. Last time I checked, 6 year old kids are learning how to spell 3-4 letter words. Not to mention, most don’t even know how to spell when they first enter the first grade. There is no way she could create a status update like that on her own. Seriously…

      1. It is awful that I am laughing so hard at this whole thing. I can’t decide whether it is just pathetically sad or the funniest faker on the internet.

    1. How is it possible that Joshua, his doctor, his daughter, Cherry’s mom, and Cherry’s dad ALL have the worst spelling and punctuation in history? Oh yeah, because they’re one and the same – JENNIFER. OMG, give it up you loser!

  4. Spell check is essential when creating hoax and fake pages. Good lord when will these disgusting idiots take up knitting or something. Better yet go read a book to a child who is really sick. Burn in hell.

    1. I wouldn’t recommend reading a book to a sick child… If the spelling is this bad, I can’t imagine what her reading would sound like and the child’s mood would only get worse! Lol but honestly, Jennifer, give up. It’s so completely obvious.. I think that if 6yo Bobbie was a real person, her writing skills would probably ne better than yours. It’s too hard to fake something like this when you can’t spell for beans… Sorry.

  5. You are so obviously the same person, you all lack basic grammar skills! You are taking funds, prayers, and support from families who actually need it! Only a truly sick individual would make up a story about having cancer to get a few “friends”. Disgusting.

  6. How sad that you are using the Jesse Rees Foundation to scam people! I bet they haven’t seen any of the money you get from the soccer balls……you are the one who is going to end up in jail!

  7. I love how Jennifer used a picture of David Beckham. He’s probably the most well-known famous British footballer in the world.
    If you’re going to play pretend, don’t use a picture of a famous celebrity…

  8. This is the downside of social media, it makes it easier for fakers to do this. To all who make these stories up, cancer isn’t anything to take lightly and I hope you get some help.

    1. You have the exact same grammatical errors as joshua Johnson, jenniffer chick and bobbie Johnson, like fallow : follow, medicaine: medicine, we are not fools, but you’re lookomg like one now, jennifer, give it up already, a fake email isn’t gonna solve your problems.

  9. Wow! Cherry’s dad how old are you suppose to be? I’m not the greatest speller in the world but damn. Looking someone up on facebook proves nothing! It proves you know how to set up a facebook thats about it. As a mother to a child that fought cancer I am utterly pissed off at this. You may think you will get away with all of this if you just keep telling us all your real but you need to come out of your fantasy world. Anyone with 2 eyes can see this is fake.

  10. sigh.
    Thank you for posting this. It’s such a shame…the Joy Jars are such a source of…joy…for kids battling. My daughters each received one a few months ago, and they were delighted. I hate that a legitimate charity is even touched by this kind of scam.
    I don’t understand why anyone would invent this kind of thing. We would do anything to escape the REALITY of pediatric oncology, I can’t fathom why anyone would think this is something “fun” to do. 🙁 (or why anyone would think that a pediatric oncologist would be incapable of writing in coherent English sentences).

    Thank you (warriorelihoax) for the work you do to protect oncology families, and to protect the truth.

  11. The sad thing is, the soccer balls are really good idea, and would probably raise LEGITIMATE money for children with cancer. It’s so sad people like this put so much effort into scamming, when that effort could be put into actually helping people.
    I have to ask you, Jennifer, and others like you, are the free gifts and money worth it?

  12. I looked at all the fake Facebook friends to see if I recognized any of the pictures. My favourites are Lisa Clark, whose occupation is “Stay at home mom and wife” but lists herself as being male, and Caleb Hostetler, who worked at “cattle ranch and build thing out of wood”.

  13. Most of, if not all, of “Mayberry’s” pictures are obviously taken with her phone directly off the computer screen…one of which I recognized from here: http://jodieotte.com/?p=451. Stealing pictures from a photographer and claiming them as your own isn’t the most legal thing. As is stealing pictures in general.

  14. Sorry if I’m repeating what has already been posted, but I seriously can’t believe someone would go to such great lengths to pull a hoax like this, and then instead of just coming clean, insisting that it is real. It’s all very sad.

  15. I noticed something funny about one of the screenshots. The one with the picture of “Joshua”. In the screenshot you can see Jennifer “flirting” with him. lol She’s flirting with herself!

  16. I would like to thank you all for finding out the truth about these people. We were the one of the first people that had contacted us over the summer, while they never asked us for money, they did send my son variuos items. Once I had time to look into them things did not add up. This make me sick for days! As if watching my 3 year old son fight for his life while undergoing a stem cell transplant was not enough I had to put up with people like this!! Thank you to the admins for uncovering the truth!!!

  17. The really sad thing seems to be that she spends all her time on her fake profiles just talking to her other fake profiles. At least most of these other scammers had enough of a following to talk to real people instead of just their other personas.

  18. So, I am curious as to how long it takes for Facebook to take the pages down? I just noticed on the Hope for Cherry page that someone was asking where to send money to help.

  19. My favorite is the MD – Lucas Johnson. What a brilliant doctor he is with his poor grammar. After working in the medical field for 10 yrs, no MD will create a Facebook page and post about losing a patient and actually NAME the person…. Obviously, this is not a REAL doctor, because he would have known about the HIPPA laws….. Jeez, Jennifer, you need to stop what you are doing and seek PROFESSIONAL help, NOW!!! You have serious issues that need addressed. I will pray for you!!! smh

    1. It’s HIPAA, not HIPPA. Just a pet peeve of mine.

      It stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

    1. We unfortunately can’t look at any Newtown pages. It’s out of our scope to verify who is related to the victims. My advice is to only donate to the official fundraising effort and if you have questions about pages, report them to Facebook or contact your local law enforcement agency. Wish we could help more with this, but it’s just not possible.

      1. The families are aware and are notifying the local police. I just wanted people to be aware of this if they choose to donate to help the families in Newtown.

  20. So Joshua’s “girlfriend” is Jennifer Chick. His last name is Johnson but his daughter’s last name is Jackson? The 6 year old daughter has her own FB account and updates the charity account as well.

    Someone has way, way too much time on their hands. I’d feel sorry for her if it wasn’t so completely lame.

    1. Did you look at “Cherry’s” FB lately? She’s just 3 years old, yet she can spell (albeit not well) and type a full paragraph! Jennifer is STILL posting that the pages are real. I really hope no else is buying it.

  21. Oh, and the doctor did med school in 2 years. LOL! That’s my favorite. He’s a “children doctor” who graduated from Stanford in 4 years, went to Johns Hopkins for 2 years and has a daughter named Felicity. So sad his elite education has rendered him inarticulate and friendless outside of the Joshua Johnson circle.

  22. …I have a really sick feeling Jennifer has way more sock puppet accounts than we realise. A LOT of her friends seem to share her bad spelling/grammar, share her interest in cancer causes, and some have incredible family tragedies…

  23. I’m a little curious about the kids playing Joshua and his doctor. Did she steal the photo or are those her kids? I would think if she stole it she could find something much better, in fact on google more convincing results would come up long before this photo would. If those are her kids, perhaps someone should contact their father and let him know what the mother of his children is doing with their image. The threat of a custody challenge could be the one thing to make her stop her lies.

  24. I don’t usually post but I love that there is someone like you out there, Taryn, finding the people that are making things up on the internet for monetary (or psychological) gain. I shouldn’t throw stones because I have my own problems to worry about and I’m blessed that I’m not suffering like those you’ve outed. However, as my children get older and begin to surf (carefully) on the internet, sites like yours continue to help point out that you can’t take most of what’s said on the internet as truth.

    I’ve been fascinated this morning by all the friends that Joshua Johnson has on FB. I speak two languages, not fluently, but decently and what I’m amazed at is that most of his FB friends can speak 3 or 4 languages. I would love to meet these people who are fluent in English, Spanish, Latin, German, and Russian. Maybe all these languages they speak fluently are confusing them and have left them with the inability to form a proper sentence in their primary language of English. Just a thought.

    Keep up the great work. I hope, as you’ve outed these people on the internet, they’ve been able to get the help they need to cope with life in a more productive and successful way.

  25. I’ve read through this post several times, and I keep getting stuck on the “little bother bag”. That’s what it says where she’s holding a paper sack. What the heck is a bother bag?

  26. It really pisses me off when people use NEGU or JoyJars other similar terms in their hoax story… If you’re going to fabricate a cancer story… You’re already an asshole but then to bring something like Jessie Rees Foundation (that is so caring, determined and just all around positive) into your hoax.. just stop right there. They do nothing but good and people like you just ruin they’re amazing work. Jennifer, I hope you and all your friends (especially Fievel…) are proud of yourselves for doing such a horrible thing. It’s over, you’re done, you can’t do anything more without making yourself look like more of a lowlife. Have fun in jail!

  27. Oh and Kasey Ashe is from Cherryville, North Carolina while Ash is Cherry’s ‘father’ … So many similarities there.. Come on.. And so many of the characters work at th same rodeo thingwwhile living in completely different places…

  28. There are some people making classist comments on the fake profiles’ public timelines. It’s fine to call the perps twisted, liars, etc, but when people start calling these perps “hicks” or @”n-word lover” I think it hurts this community and makes us appear to be bullies more than concerned netizens. It would be perfect for an ex-outed hoaxer to make anonymous death threats to hoaxers, or sign the names of someone here, and that would poison the heart of this community.

  29. The day after this post, josh Johnson became ill with “liquid in his lungs” and in the next update, he is worse. Fake death in the future anyone?

    1. That sounds like the plot of a fiction story I am writing and had posted part of on my FB(where a character dies of pneumonia 2 days before Christmas.) Anyway, I have made my whole page private now.

      1. Hopefully you had better spelling and grammar than Jennie; it took me a few dozen minutes to read her updates because of the spelling/grammar. I thought I was reading either a non-english speaking person’s updates OR this person really is 3 years old. HA!

        Good luck with your story. Are you ever going to make it public online?

        Taryn: Thank you for not condoning insults as a way to handle fakes.

    2. The new john green book, ‘a fault in our stars’ or something like that, one main character is a teenage boy with canceryou who ends up dying from fluid in his lungs. I think it was before xmas too.

      1. It’s just so damned convenient that it happen after she was caught. This hoax as been around for over a year, why not kill off the teen dad the same year that his daughter got sick? That would have been a better drama plot, I think. Of course I’m a writer by pleasure and trade (yes, there is fiction on my website, but it is CLEARLY marked as fiction), and it would just seem the more tragedies in this little girl’s life, the more likely people would open their wallets.

    1. Well, I should hope I have good spelling and grammar lol, I’ve been out of school a long time. I can share whenever I finish, though that’ll be awhile. I just worry about the whole theme of loss being triggering. That is why fakers piss me off, the real families go through enough without the hoaxers doing this.

  30. Holy. Crap.
    By far, the scariest fake as of yet.
    Did anyone actually believe this? Are there actually people that “donated” to this… Woman?
    Someone had mentioned already that the soccer balls were a great idea, and I definitely agree. It’s a damn shame that this great idea wasn’t actually used to help and comfort sick kids (even adults). Just a shame.

    1. It IS a good idea, especially if the soccer balls went to sick kids and the money went to donations for their cancer. You don’t have to be a cancer victim to help out cancer kids. It’s just as touching to hear “So-and-so read about kids sick with cancer and stuck in a hospital during Christmas or their birthdays, so [they] started making plush soccer balls, sold them at work, donated the money to childhood cancer research and delivered the plush balls to the children,” as it is to think a person who as suffered with cancer themselves made the same efforts. It’s still a beautiful thought and it means the same to the kids as well.

  31. I just find it hilarious that “Fievel” went to Cedar Creek High School in Egg Harbor Township NJ AND graduated in 1993. I’m from South Jersey. CCHS didn’t open until 2010, making it impossible to graduate from there in 1993. Fievel would have gone to Absegami or Oakcrest.

  32. Jennifer deleted all the comments from everyone here. I have some screen caps on my phone if anyone wants them for archive purposes.

  33. You know what made me sad about all of this? My best friend’s daughter was diagnosed with biliary atresia at two months, and at just four months old needed a new liver. They had to move out of state for most of the year so that she could remain at the specialist and they could be with her. Every time I put together a post on facebook regarding the benefit we were having for them and wrote letters to companies asking for donations, all I could think about were all of these cases. I wondered how many fake pleas the companies receive, and if they would write our inquiries off as such, especially given the rarity of the disease and the extreme nature of her condition.

    1. To put your mind at ease, places like that require medical tests to back up patients, which is something you can’t fake (easily). They normally don’t tell the applicants this because the ones who are real would be pretty offended that their case was questioned.

      If they didn’t respond despite checking up on things, it could probably be because they are swamped, ran out of funds, or maybe they couldn’t obtain the records.

      As a rule of thumb, always send copies of medical tests with any letters to companies, and sign release forms with the doctor so they can share the info if certain companies need to do their own research.

      1. Most of the places that we spoke to did donate, and no one required medical info (that would be a pretty intense HIPAA violation, I believe), but it was still in the back of my mind, wondering how many fake requests companies do get. You would hope the number is low, but then you see things like that and you can’t help but wonder.

  34. She’s disabled the comments on both pages. lol

    I think we should all post on our Facebook pages about this particular hoax and ask others to share it so that it will get around! What do you think?

    1. I would advise contacting her friends that are not fake. they are the ones whom are most vulnerable.

      limeasse: it’s not against HIPAA if you request the information to yourself and volunteer it to others. normally places won’t accept it, but I’ve always felt more confident telling others that I had medical records in my hands to back up my claims. maybe it was just the confidence I felt?

      1. I sent a message to Rene Chick, who appears legit/real, but haven’t heard back. It’s probably floating around in her “other messages” box somewhere.

  35. Why do many of Jennifer’s sock puppet accounts use faux spiritual pictures of wolves in their cover photos? Does she want us to believe they got together to discuss a theme?

  36. Some of the people on her list have no pictures, no info, and just have her as a friend. Either she has a few stalkers, or she got lazy and sloppy with her sock puppets!

    1. Another picture of a cute little girl on a wall is a picture off of creativefan.com who has copyrights on the bottom of their webpage also.

  37. I’m starting to think she really believes this story. She replies to herself on FB and deletes any comment that shows her for the fake she is. Also someone needs to contact the copyright owners of those pictures.

    1. I think she’s just desperate enough to think there are still people who believe her. If she got a Joy Jar out of this, imagine what else she thinks she can get for free if she keeps the lie going.

      FB “warned” me, and they keep banning one of my gay friends, for “sexual conduct” on our pages, when we never add anyone under 18, and the 5th time, they’re going to delete our profiles forever, but this fake dying child account to screw people out of money and gifts is really a-ok and morally decent to them.

      1. FB is a joke. They suspended me for 15 days for posting spam. The “spam” I was posting was the link to a documentary and petition for childhood cancer (www.thetruth365.org if you’re interested)!

    2. I sent some emails to several of the websites and people whose pictures she stole. One was a young couple getting ready to renew their vows after their daughter was born. Their daughter’s pictures were on the jesse guys page.

  38. I wonder if Jennie is reading my blog for “inspiration”? I had car problems that really scared me the other day, and suddebly she does too.

    Wouldn’t be the first time a faker from this group stole from me; Emily Dirr stole a shitload of my hospital pictures and had about 20ore staked out for future use.

    Btw, Jennie doesn’t link to hope for cherry on her profile anymore. I thought she had deleted it, but it’s still going.

  39. I’m in-boxing this article to anyone who is real, who likes/comments on either page. This is such shit. I wish once they were outed FB would shut them down. I hate scammers, they take away from those truly in need.

  40. Not sure if this was clarified earlier, but Joy Jars are sent to pediatric patients from the Jessie Rees/NEGU Foundation. They are free to patients, and contain toys and little trinkets to cheer kids up while in treatment. We got one for my daughter last year. Everything else is ridiculous, but I read the Joy Jar post as talking about one received, not asking for money. Not that it excuses anything else…

    1. Yeah, I think originally I thought she was raising money for the foundation and keeping it, but then I found out she had received a Joy Jar from the Jessie Rees/NEGU Foudation. It bugs me badly when cancer charities are targeted by fakers.

    1. I think it’s been taken down, as well as Hope for Cherry. I was just looking for it, to see if Jennifer was still having her multitude of sock puppets converse with each other. There doesn’t seem to be any activity since early February for the sock puppets.

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