Jessica Ainscough was known as the original “wellness warrior“. The Australian blogger and former online editor of Dolly magazine was an influencer before influencers were even a thing.
Today, wellness influencers are a staple of every social media platform. But back in the early 2000s, they were just beginning to flourish. Many of us hadn’t even heard of the term ‘wellness’. However, the interest behind holistic health and natural remedies had started to gain momentum. And with it came a sinister side to the movement.
Controversial figures like Belle Gibson, the disgraced wellness blogger and convicted fraudster who faked her cancer diagnosis, had the power to influence and leverage a massive following of people — particularly sick people.
This ultimately brought about a tension — one that still continues today — between traditional medicine and holistic wellbeing.
This is where Jess Ainscough came in. She was, in the early days, thought of as Belle’s contemporary.
And now, her life has been pulled onto the big screen in Netflix’s “true-ish” Belle Gibson series, Apple Cider Vinegar.
Watch: Elle Halliwell on facing life and death on the same weekend. Post continues below.
As the introductory scenes of Apple Cider Vinegar reveal, the Netflix series is inspired by the story of Belle Gibson and the people whose lives she impacted.
“This is a true story based on a lie. Some names have been changed to protect the innocent. Belle Gibson has not been paid for the recreation of her story,” the fictional Belle, played by Katilyn Dever, tells the viewer.
Milla from Apple Cider Vinegar is based on several people, according to series creator Samantha Strauss.
“I’d say Milla is a portrait of influencers at the time,” Samantha told Netflix’s Tudum. “She’s someone who is desperately trying to save her own life and becomes blind to the truth because of it.”
Alycia Debnam-Carey, who plays Milla, says the character is inspired by Jess Ainscough. Though, they have changed a lot of her real-life story in order to make the characters of Milla and Belle go ‘toe-to-toe’.
“Milla is an amalgamation of wellness influencers at the time,” Debnam-Carey told the TODAY show in the US. “We created Milla as her own thing. That was what was so great about it… we could boost her up so that she could be going toe-to-toe with Belle.”
Milla is played by Alycia Debnam-Carey in Apple Cider Vinegar. Image: Netflix.
In the show, Milla goes through a lot of similar experiences to Jess Ainscough. But who was the real woman behind the new character?
In 2008, Jess was diagnosed with a rare epithelioid sarcoma. She was only 23.
The cancer had spread through her left arm, with doctors telling her that her best treatment option was an amputation at the shoulder. Jess refused to have her arm amputated and instead decided to try chemotherapy.
While chemotherapy worked initially, it did not completely eradicate her cancer and doctors again recommended amputation. However, Jess decided to try to cure herself with non-traditional cancer treatment. And, to document the process online.
“I didn’t chop off my arm. I didn’t go into aggressive, full-body chemotherapy. I didn’t accept that my doctor’s ‘solution’ was the only course of action,” she wrote on her Wellness Warrior blog.
“I decided that I would do everything in my power to thrive in life, in spite of the looming expiration date I’d been given. I learned how to treat myself with absolute kindness & self-respect. I radicalised my diet. I systematically detoxified my body — and mind.”
Jess was a devotee of Gerson therapy, a food-based protocol that claims to cure all kinds of serious ailments, most famously cancer, with an all-vegetarian diet and a strict regime of fruit and vegetable juices and coffee enemas.
Sydney GP and author of the book ‘Fake Medicine’, Dr Brad McKay, says during her treatment, Jess Ainscough built a profile while promoting her belief that food was medicine.
In Mamamia‘s Extraordinary Stories podcast, McKay spoke to host Emma Gillespie about what Gerson therapy entails.
“Gerson therapy has been a therapy that’s been around for many, many years — even from the 60s and 70s. It’s a treatment that involves doing lots and lots of juices — fresh vegetables and fruit, putting them into a big juicer. And it’s quite onerous, because you have to have the juice on the hour, every hour, every day for a long time,” he said.
“It also involves using enemas, that usually either contain coffee or castor oil. And again, you need to be doing these enemas a couple of times a day at least with the whole principle that you’re trying to rid your body of toxins that could be sitting in your lower intestine and evacuating them.
“It hasn’t been proven to work. There are practitioners around the world that still do it. But certainly it’s not recommended in Australia.”
Despite there being no scientific evidence that Gerson therapy cures cancer, Jess persisted.
She started a website, wrote books, appeared on television and attracted tens of thousands of social media followers, influencing many, many people throughout her journey.
Over seven years, Jess became a media figure in Australia, and a major advocate of “natural health”. She was young, likable and media-savvy.
“It started out as a personal journal online and attracted a worldwide family craving this information,” she told Fairfax of her blog following.
Jess had built a wellness empire.
A post shared by @jessainscough
But this is where things started to take a turn.
After being diagnosed with breast cancer, Jess’s mother also decided to follow her daughter in advocating the controversial ‘natural’ cancer treatment. Jess’s mother died in 2013, 14 months after she was first diagnosed.
“12 months ago my beautiful mum left the physical world,” Jess shared on the one year anniversary of her mother’s death.
“Living in a world without her has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. The pain of losing her has been overwhelming. I miss everything about her. I miss the sound of her voice, her weirdly wicked sense of humour, her giant generous heart. Most of all I miss the way she loved me. Even though she’s not with me physically, I know this love is always with me and it gives me strength. Then and now she is my best friend, my biggest teacher and my angel. I love you so much mama.”
A post shared by @jessainscough
In an update on her website, Jess said her own personal health had spiralled. She said had become unwell, attributing this to her mother’s death.
“For the first time in my almost seven-year journey with cancer, this year I’ve been really unwell,” Jess wrote.
“I’ve lived with cancer since 2008 and for most of those years my condition was totally stable. When my mum became really ill, my cancer started to become aggressive again. After she died, things really started flaring up.
“For the past few months, I’ve been pretty much bedridden.”
Tragically, Jess Ainscough passed away from her cancer on February 26, 2015. She was just 29 years old. She was survived by her husband, Tallon Pamenter, and father, Col Ainscough.
Feature Image: Netflix/Getty.
TAKE SURVEY ➤
source