Chelsea and I spoke on the phone yesterday and she admitted to being the person behind the blog Cheecha Kicks Cancer.
She also admitted (during a phone call with me) that she’s been faking cancer in real life since October or November of 2011. Her family and close friends, including her two children who are in the primary custody of their father, all believed that she was in remission from Stage 4 AML.
This morning, Chelsea posted this in the comments of our blog. Her story has changed.
“There’s always two sides to a story. Unfortunately, when a witch hunt has begun against one party involved in said story, it isn’t always something easy to explain. When you’re concerned that you’re going to be verbally bashed and attacked, it doesn’t exactly make you a willing participant in explaining yourself to anyone. Particularly when you know exactly who your attackers are in some cases and you know just how cruel and cutting their words can be. But if they’ve been hurt, you can’t blame them, right? I’m clearly Frankenstein’s monster in this case.
Or am I?
I would like to go on record and state that my name is NOT “Chelsea Hassinger Maxton Graw” to start things off. My name is currently and unfortunately, Chelsea Graw according to the social security administration. Due to just sheer laziness, I haven’t managed to get it changed yet. However, that is neither here, nor there. The point of this post is to, as Taryn mentioned on her blog, clear things up and explain what has gone on. I will respectfully request that anyone attempting to make contact with me or members of my family in regards to this matter cease and desist. None of us will say anything to anyone aside from “no comment” from this point out. Once this is posted, that is all that further this matter will be discussed by any of us as we have much higher priorities in our lives, to be quite frank.
Now, I won’t go on and explain all about how I’ve never done anything wrong in my life or what have you. That’s complete bullshit. I have and I don’t deny that. I apologize sincerely for people who have been hurt or confused or any other emotion when it comes to anything I may have done or said to them. I’m not a perfect person by any means, but neither is anyone else. I have my flaws, I have my quirks, and I have my large list of many mistakes that I have made throughout my 28 years. But I can tell you all now, without any guilt or hesitation, that I have not made the mistake of faking cancer. Now, due to some photographs and the two blogs that were posted, I can absolutely understand people questioning me on this matter. That’s fine. I accept that. But honestly, I have nothing to prove to people that don’t truly impact my life. I know what’s true and what isn’t. My family and loved ones know what is and isn’t true, because they were with me throughout the entire fiasco. If you want proof of that, contact me directly and I’ll consider sending you a copy of the original diagnosis report.
In 2011, I got married to my now ex-husband in early spring. About 2 weeks after we were married, he shipped out to Iraq to begin helping shut down different FOBs as the Army started to pull soldiers out and bring them home. One would think, that as a military officer, that my ex would have been busy with his job and whatever else the US taxpayers expect out of an officer in their military’s ranks, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, I was subjected to being stalked by my own husband. I won’t say that I was perfect and didn’t cause some tension between him and I. I realize it “takes two to tango” or whatever, but what I was dealing with involved this man breaking into my Facebook account on numerous occasions, hacking into my Skype account so he could try to chat up a close friend of mine he was convinced I was cheating on him with, breaking into my AIM chat for Christ only knows what reason – you get the general idea. It was to a point where I was having to change my passwords to ever social network possible on a weekly basis. And let’s not forget when he propositioned my best friend behind my back to have a threesome, during which he told her that he had already discussed the matter with me and I had agreed to it. As this man – who I won’t call out by his name – was clearly one of Taryn’s informants, I feel like it’s vital that there be a better understanding of this man and he not be viewed as some incredible individual simply because he’s an officer in the Army.
Now, we’ll move onto the cancer portion of this.
Yesterday, I did indeed speak with Taryn Harper Wright. She and I had a lengthy discussion about how I should come clean or what have you. She offered me mental health help, was very kind, actually. But as per the request of my attorney – Mr. Brian Ulmer – I did as he requested and played nice and played along with her. I told her what she wanted to hear and in turn, unfortunately, I was unable to find out what I wanted to hear, which was the name of the person who she was using a source. But after a little detective work of my own, that’s been figured out, so no worries. What’s the saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. In this case, I’m not calling Taryn my enemy, I am however saying that she attacked me before getting the full story, so at this point, I’m sort of laughing at the fact that she used someone’s opinion as her basis for facts. I know the truth. My family knows the truth. My friends know the truth. Both my family and friends were physically present for my chemotherapry treatments at different times. They watched me go through what I went through. They were present for blood transfusions, lumbar punctures, steroid tamper tantrums, etc. If there is any doubt to this, please contact me at chels.in.wonderland@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to provide further details on this matter for anyone wondering that will put the issue to rest entirely, but for now, I won’t disclose people’s names because I have a respect for privacy. But why do I need to defend myself and my diagnosis to anyone other than the people who matter to me? I don’t. I have bigger concerns in my life right now like getting my SSI, medicare, etc. things situated. Not to mention, my family has gone through more than enough in the past few years. In regards to the diagnosis, before anyone comes at me with “THERE IS NO STAGE FOUR LEUKEMIA, BLAH BLAH BLAH”…no kidding. I never said that. Actually, if the homework had been done correctly, anyone involved directly in my treatment would have told you that every single time I have been asked “What stage is it?” I’ve explained that leukemia isn’t classed in stages. To be honest, that was a question that was a little exhausting to continually be asked over and over.
Now, as I mentioned earlier, after dealing with a slight stalker situation in regards to my ex-husband, I’ve become very careful and very adament about my privacy when it comes to any aspect of my life. So do any of you truly think that I would sit back and just assume that any of my doctors and treatment team would just know not to disclose any of my medical information to people calling about me? Think again. Sorry, but as an “anonymous” poster already pointed out (which Taryn can assure you all that was not me, since the IP address wouldn’t match up to me), HIPAA laws prohibit anyone finding out medical information on a person. It doesn’t matter who you are, you can’t find information out. However, as I’m used to dealing with someone very crafty in breaking into my accounts and other aspects of my life, I anticipated my ex – as did my mother – attempting to get information about me at any angle possible. As such, strict instructions were put in place when it came to ANYONE calling in and asking about my health. I’m not an idiot. If someone calls the outpatient clinic where I recieved consolidation and claims that they’re with a doctor’s office, of course they can find out when my appointments, etc. are scheduled for. So unless you were on a list of my REAL doctors that was kept in my files and medical records, you don’t get any information about me. Sorry. I’ve had enough stalking in my life.
I’ll now address the issue of me apparently taking donations. First things first, you need a bank account to have a PayPal account, am I right? Yes, I am. Do I have one? Nope. Not at all. I’m sure one of you super sleuths will try to work the Googlebooks and find out if I do infact have a PayPal account. I’ll save you the trouble and go ahead and tell you now that I probably do have a PayPal account because I had to make one awhile back to send a payment to someone. That was the first, last, and only time that account was used. It was connected to a USAA account that I no longer even have open. If anyone is curious as to whether or not that is true, then feel free to contact USAA in regards to the matter. But to put that rumor to rest, no, I have never taken, nor have I ever asked for financial assistance. I have never taken nor asked for other forms of assistance, either. Nobody has sent me gifts or flooded me with flowers and endless letters on how much they love me or whatever anyone wants to think. That just didn’t happen. I’ve got my family and the few people I keep close to me and that’s all that matters to me. Nobody and nothing else. I don’t need money. I don’t need anything. I certainly don’t need to explain myself to people who aren’t truly involved in my life, and yet here I am, doing just that.
I will apologize for the confusion of “Chelsea Goldberg” and all the blog dramatics associated with that. However, as nobody was robbed or otherwise harmed, I really feel like there isn’t much need for me to touch on that subject. Realistically, if anything, those blogs raised leukemia awareness in their own ways, so kudos to that aspect, I suppose. Otherwise, they’re just what they were – blogs. Just like Taryn’s blog is a blog. Anyone out there can start a blog and write whatever they feel like. That isn’t a crime. It’s called “Freedom of Speech”. At this point, I’m done with this. If further “investigation” is done into my life, my family, or my loved ones – authorities will be contacted and notified of cyber stalking and it will be handled accordingly. The police have already been given a report simply to get things on file so it’s known about. We’ve had enough. If any of you have questions, you bring them to me. I listed my email above and I’ll list it again:chels.in.wonderland@gmail.com. I’ll be happy to talk to anyone who wants to say that I faked cancer. Hell, if you want, you can give me a call and we’ll chat about it, though I won’t post my number on a public forum. But from here out, I don’t care what is said about me or about my health. As I said, the people in my life WHO MATTER know the truth, I know the truth, and that’s all that matters to me. That’s all that will ever matter to me.”
Cheecha Kicks Cancer is fake. That much we know for sure.
Further investigation into Chelsea Hassinger faking cancer in real life will have to come from the courts.
My objective was to show that the blog wasn’t a true account of a 28 year old twin with six siblings who was dying slowly of cancer. It was not.
