Manny Munoz, the founder of Gamerosity, received another request out of Memphis, TN for a child to be added to the site’s Wall of Heroes and to receive a donation from the charity.
A few hours later, he got a second email requesting an update as to when “Annabelle” would be added to the wall. Since this was the exact same thing Antranette Nolan did when she tried to add “Emily” to the site, Manny was suspicious.
It turns out he had reason to be. “Annabelle’s” mother has the same cell phone number as the fake Emily. Antranette Nolan was at it again.
I contacted Antranette at the phone number she gave Gamerosity. At first she denied it but then admitted that she had indeed made up cancer patient Annabelle as well as Emily.
Antranette wrote an apology email to Manny Munoz. He was gracious enough to share his reply with me.
“Antranette,
This CAN’T happen again. Don’t make me cynical, don’t make me suspicious of EVERY child that comes through the site. They don’t deserve it.
There are REAL KIDS with REAL ISSUES that we’re trying to help. How can you make something so POSITIVE becomes so NEGATIVE? A 17 year old boy that’s extremely close to our heart is on the verge of dying RIGHT NOW because Leukemia has overtaken his body and you think it’s a game?! This is not a game, this isn’t a joke. We bring care packages to kids to take their mind off the fact that they can’t keep a meal down, or to distract them from the needle that’s going in their back injecting them with chemotherapy… this is REAL STUFF. That’s why we do it.
There’s other platforms to receive the attention you need, Gamerosity and any other childhood cancer platform is NOT one of them. I’m sorry about the devastating losses of your parents and a loved one around you, it’s hard to come back from that, but there are programs that can help you. Taryn pointed you in the direction of one as well as providing a FREE session, I suggest you take her up on that offer. Nobody is judging, and they may offer a way for you to constructively navigate this life without stealing from children.
We have records of everything, we will hang on to them. We cannot see any more fraud coming your way from here on out in any of the childhood cancer communities. We’re all closely knit and work together to ensure the right people are being loved and cared for. Please don’t help us build a case.”
Unfortunately, Antranette also reached out to someone else trying to scam donations. The father of Super Sammy, a three year old neuroblastoma patient, was Facebook friends with Antranette when she was claiming her daughter Emily was sick. The day after Antranette’s exchange with Manny, Danny Johnson received a Facebook message from Antranette.
So, there you have it. “Emily” was misdiagnosed with cancer and Antranette is still trying to raise money online. After Danny Johnson sent her the link to this blog and told her he was on to her, Antranette AGAIN apologized and promised she’d never do it again. Her new page was deleted.
Moving on, we’ve had several readers sent us the link to this blog, Taryn Wright is Wrong. It’s a blog written by someone claiming to be Chelsea Hassinger who says our blog entries about her are untrue and fabricated. After this blog came to our attention in March, I contacted Chelsea and she denied writing it. She was very concerned that someone was trying to give me more material for blog entries about her. I told her to report the blog as fake and she did.
Then, in April, I received this letter from a lawyer claiming to represent the family of Chelsea Hassinger.
Very intimidating, but it turns out, there’s no lawyer by that name liscensed to practice law in Pennsylvania. In fact, there’s no law firm by that name either. When I called the number listed on the header, I got the voice mail of a man doing a very convincing British accent saying I had reached the law firm of Hargold, Gormann and Beckinridge and for me to leave a message after the tone. I did, but I’ve never heard back from this lawyer. The number has now been disconnected.
The address of the “law firm” is a building that houses no legal offices.
Chelsea also denies being the person behind this. She says she’s discussed it with her family and they are pursuing an investigation into who is assuming her identity in order to give me more material to write about.
The letter was mailed from Pennsylvania, and Chelsea lives down south, so her story checks out that she’s at least not the one who mailed it.
Since the letter from “the attorney” and the Taryn Wright is Wrong blog tell basically the same story, the same person might be responsible for both.
We still stand by the entries written about Cheecha Kicks Cancer, including the apology written by Chelsea wayyy back in March.
Every one of these hoaxes has strange elements, but this one has definitely been the strangest.
Again, I want to say I’m not saying Chelsea sent this letter or wrote the blog. I have no proof one way or the other, and I am taking Chelsea’s word that she did not.
