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Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Cancer-stricken influencer, 25, faces brutal trolling from critics' claiming she's faking her diagnosis after fraudsters like Belle Gibson fooled the world for thousands
A CancerTok influencer has become a victim of vicious internet conspiracy theories claiming she has faked her diagnosis. New York-based Sydney Towle has scored hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers since she tearfully announced her rare and aggressive cancer diagnosis, cholangiocarcinoma, in 2023 aged 23. The now-25-year-old invited the internet into her life as she shared content showing her undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments for bile duct cancer, which helped increase her follow count to the 777 thousand figure that it stands at today. However, among the thousands of supporters spewed a group of malicious naysayers on Reddit, who claimed that Sydney, who has not asked her followers for money, was faking her disease to win over a bigger social media following. Sceptics pointed to Sydney's videos where she travelled around the globe, alleging that it contradicted her illness. They even went through the effort of crafting a 28-page timeline of medical details Towle had shared online and used it to bolster claims that she was lying about having cancer for public sympathy and monetary gain. The outcry led Yale-educated oncologist Dr Ghassan Abou-Alta, a specialist in liver and bile duct cancers who treats Sydney, to confirm her diagnosis in conversation with the New York Times. 'She has cancer,' he said, categorizing her illness as Stage IV. While the critics' detective work was ill-founded, the public has witnessed a disturbing string of individuals falsely claiming to have cancer to make money from well-wishers, fund addictions or sell products, including the high profile case of Belle Gibson. In 2013, Belle Gibson launched the @healing_belle Instagram account where she gained a large following through sharing so-called 'healing' food recipes. She claimed that her lifestyle and healthy eating plan 'cured' her inoperable brain cancer, which she was diagnosed with at the age of 20 and given just months to live. Belle claimed that she had undergone traditional cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy, before abandoning modern medicine to follow a programme of clean eating instead. The deals began to roll in and Gibson launched an app full of recipes as well as a book deal, reportedly worth £213,500 ($420,000 AUD). Describing her plant-based diet in her book, she said, 'I was empowering myself to save my own life through nutrition, patience, determination, and love.' However, in 2014, the Melbourne-based personality claimed that, despite her new wellness-focused lifestyle, her cancer had returned, and this time it had spread. While many fans were devastated by the news, suspicions soon materialised about the money she claimed to have donated to various charities from the proceeds of her book. Following an investigation by Fairfax Media, it was discovered that none of the charities Belle had named had received a penny from her. The influencer's story quickly started to unravel, and in April 2015, she was forced to admit she had lied. In an interview with Australia Women's Weekly, she said, 'No… None of it's true,' before adding that she hoped people would forgive her and see that she was only 'human'. Two years after her admission, Belle was fined around £215,000 ($410,000 AUD) after being found guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct. The former wellness blogger has now adopted the 'Oromo' ethnic group in Melbourne, even taking to wearing a headscarf and naming herself 'Sabontu'. Three years after Belle first started to spin her web of lies, Nicole Elkabbas faked having ovarian cancer. The former Harrods manager from Broadstairs, Kent, faked cancer to con more than £52,000 from generous well-wishers to fund her lavish lifestyle over several months in 2018. In February 2021, she was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison after a jury found her guilty of one count of fraud in relation to false representation of having ovarian cancer in order to receive money for treatment. She had set up a charitable GoFundMe and claimed that she required donations to pay for treatment, despite transferring them to her own bank account. Elkabbas was never diagnosed with cancer, and instead used huge sums of cash to fund her gambling addiction, pay off mounting debts, and splash out on her 'expensive lifestyle' - including £3,592 on a luxury box to watch a single Tottenham Hotspur match. Nicole denied the offences. Her defence argued that she believed she had cancer. The fraudsters trial heard that the picture on the GoFundMe website showing Elkabbas 'apparently stricken and in her hospital bed looking very poorly indeed' was in fact from a previous operation to remove her gallbladder. Elsewhere, Iowa-based TikTokker Madison Russo scammed nearly $40,000 (£29,801) after falsely claiming she had leukemia and pancreatic cancer in postings on TikTok, GoFundMe, Facebook and LinkedIn. Russo also earned the sympathy of millions, after lying about having a 'football-sized' tumour wrapped around her spine. Between February and October 2022, Russo alleged she received about 15 rounds of chemotherapy and 90 rounds of radiation. She also insisted she had a consultation with Mayo Clinic doctors. Despite her 'cancer diagnosis', she was able to achieve high marks at university, work part-time and participate in outdoor activities. Her 'medical journey' was regularly posted on social media where she often talked about her alleged chemotherapy process and day-to-day symptoms. Russo also shared her story in newspapers, podcasts, talks at St. Ambrose University - where she studied - and The National Pancreatic Foundation. And a GoFundMe page set up to solicit donations raised $37,303 (£27,793) before being refunded to donors. Russo was found to have accepted money from 439 donors, including from cancer foundations and school districts. But she came under suspicion when internet sleuths noticed mistakes in some of her videos. One TikToker posted a photo of Russo smiling while connected to a gastrostomy tube. They pointed out that the tube was too far up Russo's nose and her 'chest port' was was wrongly applied. Police subpoenaed her medical records and found she had never been diagnosed with cancer at any medical facility in the area. Officers also found that Russo was shamelessly stealing photos from cancer patients' social media accounts in an attempt to make her story more believable. She posted a $10,000 (£7,451) bail the same day she was arrested. In June 2023, she pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in a deal with prosecutors and was given a 10-year suspended sentence. She was also ordered to pay $39,000 (£29,077) in restitution and a $1,370 (£1,021) fine. If she stays out of trouble for three years of probation, she'll stay free. Another cancer faker, Sarah Jane Cavanaugh, lied about having the disease and raked in more than $250,000 (£186,396) worth of donations in the process. In March 2023, Cavanaugh was sentenced to nearly six years in prison and ordered to repay all of the money after pleading guilty to aggravated identity theft, forged military discharge certificates, fraudulent use of military medals and four counts of wire fraud. In addition to her lie about having stage three lung cancer, Cavanaugh also made false claims that she was a Marine Corps veteran who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2009 until 2016 during which time, she said, she developed the condition due to her exposure to burn pits. She was so committed to her act she wore medals she had bought online, attended veterans' events, and even asked peers at the gym to tie her shoelaces as she claimed war-related injuries to her fingers left her unable to tie them herself. Her web of lies began when she was working as a social worker at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence and used her position to access the records belonging to a real Marine with cancer, falsifying documents to state she served in the army before being honourably discharged. The Rhode Island native accepted more than $225,000 (£186,396) from the Wounded Warrior Project alone to pay for yoga classes, gym memberships, groceries and physical therapy. She later alleged she could not afford the insurance deductibles for her cancer treatment prompting a veteran to pay them for her - costing nearly $600 (£447) a month. The money came from the same veteran whose medical details she had first stolen. In addition, prosecutors said Cavanaugh managed to get a service dog that was meant to help soothe the 'trauma' she had supposedly been exposed to in battle. She also received $18,500 (£13,796) in financial assistance from Code of Support in Virginia for bills and $4,700 (£3,505) from a fundraising website. Her story started to unravel in early 2022 after she applied for funds from the HunterSeven Foundation who conducted a background check into her military services. Veterans expressed their fury at Cavanaugh's lies during her trial as they accused her of taking donations away from those who truly needed it. One told the court they had a friend who took their life after being denied funding from a program called CreatiVets. Cavanaugh took thousands from the scheme, court documents stated. 'By brazenly laying claim to the honour, service, and sacrifice of real veterans, this defendant preyed on the charity and decency of others for her own shameless financial gain,' US Attorney Zachary A. Cunha said following her sentencing. In addition to taking funds from others in need, fake cancer sufferers have also led genuine patients like Sydney Towle to undergo intense online scrutiny. For instance, Redditors noted that Towle had planned a three-week trip to Europe and questioned why someone with cancer would take a break from treatment for a holiday, only to return to make dramatic videos about her illness. The backlash then intensified when the anonymous posters argued that she was not undergoing much chemotherapy. They noted that Towle maintained her long hair, and zoomed in on videos Towle posted to look for signs of a port - a medical device that is implanted in patients to facilitate chemo treatments and ease blood draws. When they didn't find evidence of one, the Redditors concluded Towle must be lying about her diagnosis. Then, when she posted a video showing a port implanted not on her upper chest - as is usual - but on the underside of her arm, they remained skeptical. Even when Towle posted a video in which she appeared to be at a chemotherapy appointment in March, she was hit with backlash just days later for posting another video showing her with her brother, Austin, in the Caribbean. 'This is us before going scuba diving in the ocean - for the first time,' she wrote in the TikTok video. In the next scene, Towle and her brother were seen wearing wetsuits, which Towle said 'is us after our first dive.' On Reddit, critics saw the juxtaposition as evidence that she was not sick. 'Syd must WANT to be ousted,' one commentator wrote. Eventually, the Reddit page had more than 1,000 members who accused Towle of manufacturing emotion on camera to manipulate sympathetic followers. One of the biggest detractors was a Redditor with the username Beginning_Field_2421, who was found to be Connie Wright - a privacy officer for Valley Health System in Bergen County, New Jersey, who shapes and manages the organization's patient privacy practices, according to her LinkedIn. 'We have receipts, medical analysis, fact-checking discussions,' she wrote on the page, urging others to 'join the conversation and tell us how you found out and why you may have doubts.' She also shared posts with headings like, 'Sydney Towle- Were you lying then or now?' and 'How to spot when Sydney Towle is lying: Her biggest tells, which catalogued her 'slow blinks, pauses and squinting.' WHAT IS CHOLANGIOCARCINOMA? Cholangiocarcinoma is a type of cancer that forms in the tubes that carry digestive fluid bile. Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, occurs mostly in people over 50 but can occur at any age. Doctors divide cholangiocarcinoma into different types based on where the cancer occurs in the bile ducts: Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma occurs in the parts of the bile ducts within the liver and is sometimes classified as a type of liver cancer. Hilar cholangiocarcinoma occurs in the bile ducts just outside of the liver. Distal cholangiocarcinoma occurs in the portion of the bile duct nearest the small intestine. Cholangiocarcinoma is frequently diagnosed when it's advanced, reducing the chances of effective treatment. Source - Mayo Clinic Wright also used some strong language in her posts, once reportedly writing: 'I've never disbelieved or hated this phony b more than today.' Others were also alarmed when Google said cholangiocarcinoma 'often affects adults in their seventies and carries a 'usually poor' prognosis in cases where the cancer advanced, as had Towle's. Many of the detractors did not seem concerned about their hostility, the Times reported. 'If she fabricated any part of her story, it's deeply unethical and she deserves backlash,' Beginning_Fields_2421 wrote as others hit out at Towle for accepting donations from some of her followers. 'Being a public figure comes with scrutiny - it's part of the job.' Eventually, the hostility spread beyond the internet, as Wright urged people to complain about Towle to the companies whose products she endorsed and suggested that Reddit commentators show up at a cancer research fundraiser that Towle would be attending. Someone else also suggested sending Towle's photo to cancer hospitals, implying they need to be alerted of a potential fraudster, according to the Times. A third Redditor even contacted the Jamaican scuba company where she and her brother had gone diving, asking about the protocol for allowing cancer patients to participate. Meanwhile, Towle also noticed a surge in criticism on TikTok. 'My comments have been so inundated with people being like, "You will burn in hell. You are lying,"' she told the Times, adding that she also received death threats. The comments left her feeling stuck, because if she quit social media, she feared her followers would believe she had something to hide. 'I'm sorry that they are so angry that living with cancer can look different than they think it should,' she said. In a video after the article was published, Towle finally addressed the hatred she received to her TikTok followers. 'I haven't really addressed this because I was quite frankly shocked when I found out this was a thing - and I wasn't sure how else to prove I have cancer because I was posting at chemo every week,' she said. 'I also know that I know what I'm going through, my friends and family know what I'm going through and that is ultimately what matters the most. 'But it has taken a significant toll on my mental health... It has been a lot,' she admitted. Towle concluded by saying she hopes the article 'reinforces that you do not know what someone is going through. 'Just because I am traveling, hanging out with my friends and doing normal things doesn't mean that I don't have Stage IV cancer,' she said, before thanking 'everyone who has supported me, because none of the negativity negates how much I appreciate the support of everyone on here.' Sydney's doctor Dr. Ghassan Abou-Alta described to the New York Times how Towle's cancer started in the bile ducts in the liver, and after an initial surgery to remove the original tumour, the cancer recurred in her liver. Tumours were also detected in lymph nodes next to her liver, Abou-Alta said from his office at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The doctor then went on to commend Towle for shining a light on young people who are fighting cancer, more and more of whom are diagnosed every day. Many of them can maintain a fairly normal schedule, even when undergoing chemotherapy, Abou-Alta explained. 'Patients really can live with cancer. Not everybody should be looking as if they were dying.' Of course not everyone will tolerate chemotherapy as well as Towle, but a number are, he said. 'A young patient like Sydney, or at any age really, can keep going and look very good,' the doctor said. 'But it does not undermine that she's still living with a very serious matter.' When the oncologist was told about the skeptics on Reddit who believed Towle to be lying about her diagnosis, Abou-Alta reportedly hung his head and shook it in disbelief.
Boston Globe
04-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
‘I have cancer,' the TikTok star said. Then came the torrent of hate.
But her content took a sharp turn in August 2023. In a pink bikini top, her face stained with tears, she spoke directly to the camera. 'I have cancer,' she said. 'I am strong, so I'll be good.' She flashed a thumbs-up and an awkward smile. Her diagnosis, she said, was cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the bile ducts. Towle's social media posts grew more frequent and personal as she joined the ranks of influencers in what is known as CancerTok. She made videos of herself exploring New York City, where she said she had moved to be close to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; struggling with exhaustion and nausea she attributed to chemotherapy; and crying in grief for the carefree life she no longer led. And her growing online fan base -- before long, she had more than 760,000 followers -- routinely cheered her on. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up But on Reddit, in a more skeptical and caustic corner of the internet, an army of angry critics was assembling. Towle's antagonists had concluded that she was leveraging her story of illness for public sympathy and financial benefit. They scrutinized her every word and image, building a case that she was misleading the public. Advertisement Many accused her of faking cancer altogether. Advertisement Towle's videos have drawn an enormous audience on TikTok, where her followers praise and support her, but on Reddit, an army of skeptics was determined to paint her as a fraud. MICHELLE V. AGINS/NYT Towle, 25, is now at the center of an intense social media collision that reveals the best intentions and worst instincts of the internet -- where isolated strangers can become support systems in times of crisis and sleuths labor obsessively to root out scammers. But in an online economy that feeds off emotion and internet addiction, it's not always clear who is manipulating whom. 'No Defending Syd' 'Snark pages' on Reddit, also known as 'snark subreddits,' are designated forums where people congregate under the veil of anonymity to critique and mock influencers and celebrities. In some cases, they become skeptical of the influencers they follow and fixated on exposing inconsistencies in their narratives. A snark page devoted to Towle appeared last fall, just as she was moving from Los Angeles to Manhattan. 'Does something feel off to you about Syd Towle's cancer story?' the subreddit asked. The group's rules included 'Be respectful to each other' and 'No defending Syd.' Six months later, SydTowleSnark had more than 1,000 members, a relatively small group but one with an active core. Mostly, the commenters focused on their certainty that she was a cancer scammer, like the frauds who have been the subject of the recent documentaries 'Scamanda' on Hulu and 'Anatomy of Lies' on Peacock, as well as Netflix's 'Apple Cider Vinegar,' which is based on a true story. Towle's critics pointed to her long hair and her penchant for travel and fitness as proof that she could not possibly have the illness she claimed. They created a 28-page timeline of medical details shared by Towle online, using it to bolster their claims of fakery. They zoomed in on photos showing a large scar on her abdomen to search for signs of photo editing. Advertisement And they accused her of manufacturing emotion on camera to manipulate sympathetic followers. One of its most active and impassioned members, a person using the Reddit handle Beginning_Field_2421, put it this way: 'No matter how innocent or saccharine she tries to appear on social media, there's still a predatory edge to what she is doing.' Towle during chemotherapy at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. MICHELLE V. AGINS/NYT Sharing her experiences publicly is Towle's way of processing the trials of life, she said in an interview, a habit that began well before she started making cancer videos. In college, she noted, she wrote for the school newspaper about her struggles with an eating disorder. The videos, she said, give her purpose when she does not want to get out of bed. They connect her to others whom she can inspire and be inspired by. They also help her pay the bills. Like many influencers, Towle is sometimes paid by brands when she features their products. She also draws revenue from a TikTok program in which those who have more than 10,000 followers and meet eligibility requirements are paid a commission based on how many views their videos draw. In the past year, TikTok has paid her about $20,000, according to a financial statement reviewed by The New York Times. She also works on the social media team of a large gaming company, a full-time job that allows her to work remotely and provides health insurance. Still, her TikTok fans regularly urge her to let them contribute money toward her care, and sometimes she adds a link to an Amazon wish list to her TikTok bio for Uber Eats, Airbnb and Amtrak gift cards. Advertisement 'I have not begged people for money,' she said this winter. 'I didn't start TikTok and then ask people to pay my hospital bills. I've never started a GoFundMe.' But Towle's detractors consider any financial benefit an enormous grift. 'I find her obscene and offensive,' a Reddit user wrote recently. 'To see her manipulate people for money, when there are REAL people out there with REAL cancer juggling REAL problems, disgusts me.' To Ghassan Abou-Alfa, all of this is madness. He is a Yale University-trained oncologist who specializes in liver cancer and bile duct tumors at one of the nation's leading cancer hospitals. He is also Towle's doctor. 'She has cancer,' Abou-Alfa confirmed in an interview at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. Abou-Alfa explained the details of his patient's intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. It started in the bile ducts in the liver, and after surgery to remove the original tumor, the cancer has recurred in her liver. The disease has also been detected in lymph nodes next to her liver. She has Stage 4 cancer. Towle, Abou-Alfa said, is helping to shine a light on an emerging face of cancer, one that is young and is neither near death nor cured. Even when receiving chemotherapy and immunotherapy, some patients can maintain a fairly normal schedule, he said: 'Patients really can live with cancer. Not everybody should be looking as if they are dying.' But on Reddit, anonymous commenters ignored Towle's truthful dispatches that spoke to such matters and decided they did not believe her. The anger soon leaked out of the internet and into real life. Beginning_Field_2421 urged people to complain about Towle to the companies whose products she endorsed and suggested that Reddit commenters show up at a cancer research fundraiser in New York that Towle would be attending. Someone else suggested sending her photograph to cancer hospitals, implying that they need to be alerted to a potential fraudster. Advertisement Towle felt stuck in a cycle she had helped to create. If she quit social media, she feared her followers would believe she had something to hide. If she continued to post emotional updates, they would say she was cravenly seeking sympathy to gin up engagement. If she stopped talking about cancer in her videos, her detractors would say she was too upbeat. 'I'm sorry that they are so angry that living with cancer can look different than they think it should,' she said. 'No matter what I do, these people move the goal posts.' Towle works remotely on the social media team for a large gaming company, in her apartment in New York. MICHELLE V. AGINS/NYT Snark vs. SnarkSnark But the internet loves a fight, and eventually an anti-anti-Sydney contingent began to gather steam. In late February, a new Reddit group -- SydTowleSnarkSnark -- was created in part to criticize Towle's critics. Several people reported the original snark page to Reddit administrators, flagging various comments and specific people whose posts seemed alarmingly aggressive, including Beginning_Field_2421. Reddit told them the content of the snark page did not violate any rules. It also warned at least one person that she was 'abusing' the reporting tool. (After Reddit was contacted by the Times, it removed some comments it considered 'harassing,' according to a spokesperson who said that administrators were 'in error' when they originally said there had been no violations.) One woman in the Midwest became so disgusted by the venom directed at Towle and by Reddit's apparent apathy that she took action. She spent hours trying to glean the identities of the most frequent anonymous critics, all of whom communicate on Reddit via cryptic handles, such as No-Veterinarian6552, Spirited_Coach7832 and FarTransportation152. Advertisement The woman, a nurse who has worked with cancer patients, spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity so that she did not open herself to online bullying. She sleuthed out the real identities of nearly a dozen active Reddit skeptics of Towle by cross-referencing personal details they shared in comments with information on Google, Instagram, LinkedIn and even the interior photographs of a home seen in a Zillow listing. Beginning_Field_2421, among the most persistent critics, was a woman named Connie Wright, the privacy officer for Valley Health System, headquartered in Bergen County, New Jersey, where she shapes and manages the organization's patient privacy practices, according to her LinkedIn profile. In a message sent to the Times on Reddit, Wright, 53, said, 'I've remained anonymous to avoid backlash or reputational harm from a public figure with a large and active online following.' She then deleted her account. The Times also contacted several other participants in the snark page. Those who responded asked not to be included in this article. Some stopped posting or deleted their social media accounts altogether. Towle at a Cycle for Survival cancer research fundraiser in New York, in March. MICHELLE V. AGINS/NYT 'Lessen the Load' In April, Towle was a featured speaker at a conference of the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation in Salt Lake City. 'The things that people say behind the protection of their phone are horrifying,' she said in her speech. 'I never thought that I would receive the level of hate that I have in sharing my journey.' She received a standing ovation from a rapt audience. But her return to the drudgery of chemotherapy several days later was a difficult comedown. 'I'm so overwhelmed,' she sobbed in a worrisome TikTok video. 'I'm so tired.' There was no sympathy on Reddit -- where even Towle's speech at a cancer conference had not persuaded many that she had cancer. But on TikTok, fans expressed concern. Supporters left more than 3,000 comments, many of them asking if they could sit with her during chemotherapy, send her food or give her money. 'Syd -- I see you,' wrote actress and activist Alyssa Milano. 'We all love you. Start a GoFundMe so you can take care of yourself and not worry about work. Lessen the load.' The next morning, via video, Towle announced a decision that stirred up her fans and critics alike. 'I'm starting a GoFundMe, a very small one,' she said, stifling tears. She said she intended to raise $2,500 for a birthday vacation for her mother, a federal employee recently laid off by the Department of Government Efficiency. Donations poured in. The Reddit community lost its mind. 'Vile,' wrote one commenter. 'I thought I'd heard it all until now.' 'Her followers are some of the most gullible people out there,' another said. In less than 24 hours, supporters donated $41,000, and Towle stopped accepting contributions. After taking her brother and mother to the Grand Canyon, she said, she would use the remaining money to pay travel and hotel expenses for her mother to be with her in New York when she had chemotherapy. On TikTok, many people urged her to reopen the fund. In an interview, Towle said she felt torn between her followers' enthusiasm and the fact that she did not truly need donations. 'It's hard to say that I wish I hadn't done it, or that I wish I hadn't started this whole life on social media,' she said. 'It's obviously brought so many good things. But there's just so much stress behind the scenes that people don't see.' A day after shutting down the fundraiser, she made another video. 'After talking to my mom for a while,' she said, 'I've decided to reopen the GoFundMe.' After five days, her TikTok fans had donated more than $75,000. The grousing on the snark page was short-lived. Last week, a day after the Times sent Reddit a detailed inquiry about its inaction, the company abruptly shut down the group. In its place was the image of a gavel. SydTowleSnark, the company announced, was officially banned. This article originally appeared in .
The Star
03-05-2025
- Health
- The Star
‘I have cancer,' the TikTok Star said. Then came the torrent of hate
By the time Sydney Towle graduated from Dartmouth College in 2022, she had a growing social media side hustle. On TikTok, where she posted videos, her fans watched her perform dance moves in her kitchen and lip-sync to popular songs. She modeled clothing and posed in bikinis on the beach. Within a year, she was an influencer in full, with more than 450,000 followers. But her content took a sharp turn in August 2023. In a pink bikini top, her face stained with tears, she spoke directly to the camera. 'I have cancer,' she said. 'I am strong, so I'll be good.' She flashed a thumbs-up and an awkward smile. Her diagnosis, she said, was cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the bile ducts. Towle's social media posts grew more frequent and personal as she joined the ranks of influencers in what is known as CancerTok. She made videos of herself exploring New York City, where she said she had moved to be close to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; struggling with exhaustion and nausea she attributed to chemotherapy; and crying in grief for the carefree life she no longer led. And her growing online fan base – before long, she had more than 760,000 followers – routinely cheered her on. But on Reddit, in a more skeptical and caustic corner of the Internet, an army of angry critics was assembling. Towle's antagonists had concluded that she was leveraging her story of illness for public sympathy and financial benefit. They scrutinised her every word and image, building a case that she was misleading the public. Many accused her of faking cancer altogether. Towle, 25, is now at the centre of an intense social media collision that reveals the best intentions and worst instincts of the Internet – where isolated strangers can become support systems in times of crisis and sleuths labour obsessively to root out scammers. But in an online economy that feeds off emotion and Internet addiction, it's not always clear who is manipulating whom. 'No Defending Syd' 'Snark pages' on Reddit, also known as 'snark subreddits,' are designated forums where people congregate under the veil of anonymity to critique and mock influencers and celebrities. In some cases, they become sceptical of the influencers they follow and fixated on exposing inconsistencies in their narratives. A snark page devoted to Towle appeared last fall, just as she was moving from Los Angeles to Manhattan. 'Does something feel off to you about Syd Towle's cancer story?' the subreddit asked. The group's rules included 'Be respectful to each other' and 'No defending Syd.' Six months later, SydTowleSnark had more than 1,000 members, a relatively small group but one with an active core. Mostly, the commenters focused on their certainty that she was a cancer scammer, like the frauds who have been the subject of the recent documentaries Scamanda on Hulu and Anatomy of Lies on Peacock, as well as Netflix's Apple Cider Vinegar , which is based on a true story. Towle's critics pointed to her long hair and her penchant for travel and fitness as proof that she could not possibly have the illness she claimed. They created a 28-page timeline of medical details shared by Towle online, using it to bolster their claims of fakery. They zoomed in on photos showing a large scar on her abdomen to search for signs of photo editing. And they accused her of manufacturing emotion on camera to manipulate sympathetic followers. One of its most active and impassioned members, a person using the Reddit handle Beginning_Field_2421, put it this way: 'No matter how innocent or saccharine she tries to appear on social media, there's still a predatory edge to what she is doing.' Sharing her experiences publicly is Towle's way of processing the trials of life, she said in an interview, a habit that began well before she started making cancer videos. In college, she noted, she wrote for the school newspaper about her struggles with an eating disorder. The videos, she said, give her purpose when she does not want to get out of bed. They connect her to others whom she can inspire and be inspired by. They also help her pay the bills. Like many influencers, Towle is sometimes paid by brands when she features their products. She also draws revenue from a TikTok program in which those who have more than 10,000 followers and meet eligibility requirements are paid a commission based on how many views their videos draw. In the past year, TikTok has paid her about US$20,000 (RM 85,480) , according to a financial statement reviewed by The New York Times . She also works on the social media team of a large gaming company, a full-time job that allows her to work remotely and provides health insurance. Still, her TikTok fans regularly urge her to let them contribute money toward her care, and sometimes she adds a link to an Amazon wish list to her TikTok bio for Uber Eats, Airbnb and Amtrak gift cards. 'I have not begged people for money,' she said this winter. 'I didn't start TikTok and then ask people to pay my hospital bills. I've never started a GoFundMe.' But Towle's detractors consider any financial benefit an enormous grift. 'I find her obscene and offensive,' a Reddit user wrote recently. 'To see her manipulate people for money, when there are REAL people out there with REAL cancer juggling REAL problems, disgusts me.' To Ghassan Abou-Alfa, all of this is madness. He is a Yale University-trained oncologist who specialises in liver cancer and bile duct tumours at one of the nation's leading cancer hospitals. He is also Towle's doctor. 'She has cancer,' Abou-Alfa confirmed in an interview at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. Abou-Alfa explained the details of his patient's intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. It started in the bile ducts in the liver, and after surgery to remove the original tumor, the cancer has recurred in her liver. The disease has also been detected in lymph nodes next to her liver. She has Stage 4 cancer. Towle, Abou-Alfa said, is helping to shine a light on an emerging face of cancer, one that is young and is neither near death nor cured. Even when receiving chemotherapy and immunotherapy, some patients can maintain a fairly normal schedule, he said: 'Patients really can live with cancer. Not everybody should be looking as if they are dying.' But on Reddit, anonymous commenters ignored Towle's truthful dispatches that spoke to such matters and decided they did not believe her. The anger soon leaked out of the Internet and into real life. Beginning_Field_2421 urged people to complain about Towle to the companies whose products she endorsed and suggested that Reddit commenters show up at a cancer research fundraiser in New York that Towle would be attending. Someone else suggested sending her photograph to cancer hospitals, implying that they need to be alerted to a potential fraudster. Towle felt stuck in a cycle she had helped to create. If she quit social media, she feared her followers would believe she had something to hide. If she continued to post emotional updates, they would say she was cravenly seeking sympathy to gin up engagement. If she stopped talking about cancer in her videos, her detractors would say she was too upbeat. 'I'm sorry that they are so angry that living with cancer can look different than they think it should,' she said. 'No matter what I do, these people move the goal posts.' Snark vs. SnarkSnark But the Internet loves a fight, and eventually an anti-anti-Sydney contingent began to gather steam. In late February, a new Reddit group – SydTowleSnarkSnark –was created in part to criticise Towle's critics. Several people reported the original snark page to Reddit administrators, flagging various comments and specific people whose posts seemed alarmingly aggressive, including Beginning_Field_2421. Reddit told them the content of the snark page did not violate any rules. It also warned at least one person that she was 'abusing' the reporting tool. (After Reddit was contacted by the Times , it removed some comments it considered 'harassing,' according to a spokesperson who said that administrators were 'in error' when they originally said there had been no violations.) One woman in the Midwest became so disgusted by the venom directed at Towle and by Reddit's apparent apathy that she took action. She spent hours trying to glean the identities of the most frequent anonymous critics, all of whom communicate on Reddit via cryptic handles, such as No-Veterinarian6552, Spirited_Coach7832 and FarTransportation152. The woman, a nurse who has worked with cancer patients, spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity so that she did not open herself to online bullying. She sleuthed out the real identities of nearly a dozen active Reddit skeptics of Towle by cross-referencing personal details they shared in comments with information on Google, Instagram, LinkedIn and even the interior photographs of a home seen in a Zillow listing. Beginning_Field_2421, among the most persistent critics, was a woman named Connie Wright, the privacy officer for Valley Health System, headquartered in Bergen County, New Jersey, where she shapes and manages the organisation's patient privacy practices, according to her LinkedIn profile. In a message sent to the Times on Reddit, Wright, 53, said, 'I've remained anonymous to avoid backlash or reputational harm from a public figure with a large and active online following.' She then deleted her account. The Times also contacted several other participants in the snark page. Those who responded asked not to be included in this article. Some stopped posting or deleted their social media accounts altogether. 'Lessen the load' In April, Towle was a featured speaker at a conference of the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation in Salt Lake City. 'The things that people say behind the protection of their phone are horrifying,' she said in her speech. 'I never thought that I would receive the level of hate that I have in sharing my journey.' She received a standing ovation from a rapt audience. But her return to the drudgery of chemotherapy several days later was a difficult comedown. 'I'm so overwhelmed,' she sobbed in a worrisome TikTok video. 'I'm so tired.' There was no sympathy on Reddit – where even Towle's speech at a cancer conference had not persuaded many that she had cancer. But on TikTok, fans expressed concern. Supporters left more than 3,000 comments, many of them asking if they could sit with her during chemotherapy, send her food or give her money. 'Syd – I see you,' wrote actress and activist Alyssa Milano. 'We all love you. Start a GoFundMe so you can take care of yourself and not worry about work. Lessen the load.' The next morning, via video, Towle announced a decision that stirred up her fans and critics alike. 'I'm starting a GoFundMe, a very small one,' she said, stifling tears. She said she intended to raise US$2,500 (RM10,688) for a birthday vacation for her mother, a federal employee recently laid off by the Department of Government Efficiency. Donations poured in. The Reddit community lost its mind. 'Vile,' wrote one commenter. 'I thought I'd heard it all until now.' 'Her followers are some of the most gullible people out there,' another said. In less than 24 hours, supporters donated US$41,000 (RM175,295), and Towle stopped accepting contributions. After taking her brother and mother to the Grand Canyon, she said, she would use the remaining money to pay travel and hotel expenses for her mother to be with her in New York when she had chemotherapy. On TikTok, many people urged her to reopen the fund. In an interview, Towle said she felt torn between her followers' enthusiasm and the fact that she did not truly need donations. 'It's hard to say that I wish I hadn't done it, or that I wish I hadn't started this whole life on social media,' she said. 'It's obviously brought so many good things. But there's just so much stress behind the scenes that people don't see.' A day after shutting down the fundraiser, she made another video. 'After talking to my mom for a while,' she said, 'I've decided to reopen the GoFundMe.' After five days, her TikTok fans had donated more than US$75,000 (RM320,662). The grousing on the snark page was short-lived. Last week, a day after the Times sent Reddit a detailed inquiry about its inaction, the company abruptly shut down the group. In its place was the image of a gavel. SydTowleSnark, the company announced, was officially banned. – © 2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Daily Mail
02-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
CancerTok influencer's doctor reveals shock truth behind her diagnoses after critics claimed they spotted clues she was faking illness
A Yale-educated oncologist has hit out at detractors who claimed an influencer was faking her cancer diagnosis. Sydney Towle, now 25, already had scores of online followers on TikTok when she tearfully announced in 2023 that she had a rare and aggressive form of cancer, known as cholangiocarcinoma. As she shared her life undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments for the bile duct cancer, her fanbase grew and she now has more than 770,000 followers on the video sharing site. But as Towle's popularity grew - so did her critics, who maliciously claimed they found evidence the CancerTok influencer was faking her diagnosis, according to the New York Times. They pointed to her videos showing her traveling around the world and what they saw as contradictions in her treatment on an anonymous Reddit page. The detractors even put together a 28-page timeline of medical details Towle shared online, using it to bolster their claims that Towle was lying about having cancer for public sympathy and monetary gain. Yet Dr. Ghassan Abou-Alta, who specializes in liver and bile duct cancers and treats Towle - has now put an end to the debate. 'She has cancer,' he told the Times, categorizing her illness as Stage IV. He described how Towle's cancer started in the bile ducts in the liver, and after an initial surgery to remove the original tumor, the cancer recurred in her liver. Tumors were also detected in lymph nodes next to her liver, Abou-Alta said from his office at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The doctor then went on to commend Towle for shining a light on young people who are fighting cancer, more and more of whom are diagnosed every day. Many of them can maintain a fairly normal schedule, even when undergoing chemotherapy, Abou-Alta explained. 'We literally have people who come to us for treatment on their lunchtime from the office and then go back to work,' he noted. 'Patients really can live with cancer. Not everybody should be looking as if they were dying.' Of course not everyone will tolerate chemotherapy as well as Towle, but a number are, he said. 'A young patient like Sydney, or at any age really, can keep going and look very good,' the doctor said. 'But it does not undermine that she's still living with a very serious matter.' When the oncologist was then told that skeptics on Reddit thought Towle was lying about her diagnosis, Abou-Alta reportedly hung his head and shook it in disbelief. He then recounted how he had told Towle that the point of undergoing chemotherapy is to preserve and prolong life - something that she should cherish. 'Always what I tell her is, "We want to steal from you one day per week" for treatment,' the doctor said. '"That's when you're a sick person. We have to keep the other six days for you."' Yet those on the so-called 'snark' Reddit page have claimed Towle's often cheerful videos are proof that she does not actually have cancer. They started the page last fall, as Towle moved from her native California to New York City for treatment. Its rules included: 'No defending Syd.' At the time, the Redditors noted that Towle had planned a three-week trip to Europe ahead of her move - questioning why someone with cancer would take a break from treatment for vacation, only to return to make dramatic videos about her illness. The backlash then intensified over the winter, when the anonymous posters argued that she was not undergoing much chemotherapy. They noted that Towle maintained her long hair, and zoomed in on videos Towle posted to look for signs of a port - a medical device that is implanted in patients to facilitate chemo treatments and ease blood draws. When they didn't find evidence of one, the Redditors concluded Towle must be lying about her diagnosis. Then, when she posted a video showing a port implanted not on her upper chest - as is usual - but on the underside of her arm, they remained skeptical. And even when Towle posted a video in which she appeared to be at a chemotherapy appointment in March, she was hit with backlash just days later, for posting another video showing her with her brother, Austin, in the Caribbean. 'This is us before going scuba diving in the ocean - for the first time,' she wrote in the TikTok video. In the next scene, Towle and her brother were seen wearing wetsuits, which Towle said 'is us after our first dive.' The brother-and-sister duo were in Jamaica for a friend's wedding, but on Reddit, critics saw the stark juxtaposition as evidence she was not sick. 'Syd must WANT to be ousted,' one commentator wrote. 'Don't worry, she'll be back with the fake nausea and baby voice in no time,' another added. Eventually, the Reddit page had more than 1,000 members who accused Towle of manufacturing emotion on camera to manipulate sympathetic followers. One of the biggest detractors was a Redditor with the username Beginning_Field_2421, who was found to be Connie Wright - a privacy officer for Valley Health System in Bergen County, New Jersey who shapes and manages the organization's patient privacy practices, according to her LinkedIn. 'We have receipts, medical analysis, fact-checking discussions,' she wrote on the page, urging others to 'join the conversation and tell us how you found out and why you may have doubts.' She also shared posts with headings like, 'Sydney Towle- Were you lying then or now?' and 'How to spot when Sydney Towle is lying: Her biggest tells, which catalogued her 'slow blinks, pauses and squinting.' Wright also used some strong language in her posts, once reportedly writing: 'I've never disbelieved or hated this phony b more than today.' Others were also alarmed when Google said cholangiocarcinoma 'often affects adults in their 70s' and carries a 'usually poor' prognosis in cases in which the cancer advanced, as had Towle's. Many of the detractors did not seem concerned about their hostility, the Times reports. 'If she fabricated any part of her story, it's deeply unethical and she deserves backlash,' Beginning_Fields_2421 wrote as others hit out at Towle for accepting donations from some of her followers. 'Being a public figure comes with scrutiny - it's part of the job.' Eventually, the hostility spread beyond the Internet, as Wright urged people to complain about Towle to the companies whose products she endorsed and suggested that Reddit commentators show up at a cancer research fundraiser that Towle would be attending. Someone else also suggested sending Towle's photo to cancer hospitals, implying they need to be alerted of a potential fraudster, according to the Times. A third Redditor even contacted the Jamaican scuba company where she and her brother had gone diving, asking about the protocol for allowing cancer patients to participate. Meanwhile, Towle also noticed a surge in criticism on TikTok. 'My comments have been so inundated with people being like, "You will burn in hell. You are lying,"' she told the Times, adding that she also received death threats. The comments left her feeling stuck, because if she quit social media, she feared her followers would believe she had something to hide. 'I'm sorry that they are so angry that living with cancer can look different than they think it should,' she said. In a video after the article was published, Towle finally addressed the hatred she received to her TikTok followers. 'I haven't really addressed this because I was quite frankly shocked when I found out this was a thing - and I wasn't sure how else to prove I have cancer because I was posting at chemo every week,' she said. 'I also know that I know what I'm going through, my friends and family know what I'm going through and that is ultimately what matters the most. 'But it has taken a significant toll on my mental health... It has been a lot,' she admitted. Towle concluded by saying she hopes the article 'reinforces that you do not know what someone is going through. 'Just because I am traveling, hanging out with my friends and doing normal things doesn't mean that I don't have Stage IV cancer,' she said, before thanking 'everyone who has supported me, because none of the negativity negates how much I appreciate the support of everyone on here.'
New York Times
01-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
‘I Have Cancer,' the TikTok Star Said. Then Came the Torrent of Hate.
By the time Sydney Towle graduated from Dartmouth College in 2022, she had a growing social media side hustle. On TikTok, where she posted videos, her fans watched her perform dance moves in her kitchen and lip-sync to popular songs. She modeled clothing and posed in bikinis on the beach. She gallivanted around Europe with friends. Within a year, she was an influencer in full, with more than 450,000 followers. But her content took a sharp turn in August 2023. In a pink bikini top, her face stained with tears, she spoke directly to the camera. 'I have cancer,' she said. 'I am strong, so I'll be good.' She flashed a thumbs-up and an awkward smile. Her diagnosis, she said, was cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the bile ducts. Ms. Towle's social media posts grew more frequent and personal, as she joined the ranks of influencers in what is known as CancerTok. She made videos of herself exploring New York City, where she said she had moved to be close to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; struggling with exhaustion and nausea she attributed to chemotherapy; and crying in grief for the carefree life she no longer led. And her growing online fan base — before long, she had more than 760,000 followers — routinely cheered her on: 'We are all rooting hard for you girl!!!' one person posted on TikTok. 'Keep up the good fight.' 'Your positive outlook through all of this inspires me daily,' another said. But on Reddit, in a more skeptical and caustic corner of the internet, an army of angry critics was assembling. 'I literally feel like punching her in the face,' wrote one commenter. Ms. Towle's antagonists had quickly concluded that she was leveraging her story of illness for public sympathy and financial benefit. They scrutinized her every word and image, building a case that she was misleading the public. Many accused her of faking cancer altogether. Ms. Towle, 25, is now at the center of an intense social media collision that reveals the best intentions and worst instincts of the internet — where isolated strangers can become support systems in times of crisis and sleuths labor obsessively to root out scammers. But in an online economy that feeds off emotion and internet addiction, it's not always clear who is manipulating whom. 'No defending Syd' In mid-March, Ms. Towle posted a video in which she appears to be at a chemotherapy appointment. She is pictured next to an IV pole, vomit bag in hand, bopping to the beat of 'Nokia' by Drake. Several days later, she posted another video, this time inviting her followers along on an adventure. 'This is us before going scuba diving in the ocean — for the first time,' she says, standing next to her brother, Austin, against a bright blue sky and the Caribbean Sea. In the next scene, they're wearing wet suits. 'This is us, after our first dive.' They were in Jamaica for a friend's wedding. On Reddit, Ms. Towle's critics saw the stark juxtaposition as evidence that she was not, in fact, sick. 'Syd must WANT to be outed,' one person wrote. 'Don't worry, she'll be back with the fake nausea and baby voice in no time,' another responded. 'Snark pages' on Reddit, also known as 'snark subreddits,' are designated forums where people congregate under the veil of anonymity to critique and mock influencers and celebrities. In some cases, they become skeptical of the influencers they follow and fixated on exposing inconsistencies in their narratives. A snark page devoted to Sydney Towle appeared last fall, just as she was moving to Manhattan. Ms. Towle marked the occasion of her move with an upbeat video showing her dancing on a city street against the backdrop of Taylor Swift's 'Welcome to New York.' 'Does something feel off to you about Syd Towle's cancer story?' the subreddit asked. The group's rules included 'Be respectful to each other' and 'No defending Syd.' Six months later, SydTowleSnark had more than 1,000 members, a relatively small group but one with an active core. It was filled with thousands of comments criticizing Ms. Towle's public postings — from the way she characterized the severity of her illness to the appearance of dirt beneath her fingernails. Mostly, the commenters focused on their certainty that she was a cancer scammer, like the frauds who have been the subject of the recent documentaries 'Scamanda' on Hulu and 'Anatomy of Lies' on Peacock, as well as Netflix's 'Apple Cider Vinegar,' which is based on a true story. 'Sydney Towle & Scamanda: Are the Parallels Too Obvious to Ignore?' asked one post. 'She lies about everything,' another said. Ms. Towle's critics pointed to her long hair and her penchant for travel and fitness as proof that she could not possibly have the illness she claimed. They saw contradictions in her treatment, including that she did not undergo chemotherapy for much of 2024, despite what she described as a grave diagnosis. They created a 28-page timeline of medical details shared by Ms. Towle online, using it to bolster their claims of fakery. They zoomed in on photos showing a large scar on her abdomen to search for signs of photoshopping. When they were unable to see in Ms. Towle's videos any signs of a port — a medical device implanted in patients to facilitate chemotherapy treatments and ease blood draws — they took it as a certainty she was lying. When she posted a video showing a port implanted not on her upper chest, which is common, but on the underside of her arm, they remained skeptical. They complained that she was too upbeat. 'I hate her toxic positivity,' one person posted. 'I don't believe a word she says.' And they accused her of manufacturing emotion on camera to manipulate sympathetic followers. A person using the Reddit handle Beginning_Field_2421 put it this way: 'No matter how innocent or saccharine she tries to appear on social media, there's still a predatory edge to what she is doing.' Beginning_Field_2421 did not create the SydTowleSnark page, but she became one of its most active and impassioned members, posting lengthy commentaries. 'We have receipts, medical analysis, fact-checking and discussions,' she wrote, urging people to 'join the conversation and tell us how you found us and why you may have doubts.' She shared posts with headings like 'Sydney Towle — Were you lying then or now?' and 'How to spot when Sydney Towle is lying: Her biggest tells,' which cataloged Ms. Towle's 'slow blinks, pauses & squinting.' Sometimes her comments were short and scathing: 'I've never disbelieved or hated this phony b more than today. That's it.' Some of the commenters claimed to be health care professionals; others compared their experiences of living through a loved one's cancer, or their own. Many were armed with only an internet education in cholangiocarcinoma — 'a rare and aggressive type of cancer,' according to Google, that 'often affects adults in their 70s' and carries a 'usually poor' prognosis in cases in which the cancer has advanced, as was true of Ms. Towle's cancer, according to her videos. Ms. Towle's critics did not seem concerned about the effect of their hostility. 'If she fabricated any part of her story, it's deeply unethical, and she deserves backlash,' Beginning_Field_2421 wrote. 'Being a public figure comes with scrutiny — it's part of the job.' 'Let's go slay some chemo!' On many Tuesday mornings, Ms. Towle leans her phone against a mirror in her East Village walk-up, hits the record button and films a 'get ready with me' video. GRWMs, as they are known on social media, are bedrocks of the TikTok canon in which people share their daily primping routines. Sometimes Ms. Towle chats with viewers as she slathers rejuvenating oil on her skin and brushes her eyebrows. Often, she flashes her moisturizers and mascaras on the screen, in calculated product placement. But on these Tuesdays, her videos usually begin the same way. She smiles toward the camera and says brightly, 'Let's go slay some chemo!' Sharing her experiences publicly is her way of processing the trials of life, she said in an interview, a habit that began well before she started making cancer videos. In college, she noted, she wrote for the school newspaper about her struggles with an eating disorder. The videos, she said, give her purpose when she does not want to get out of bed. They connect her to others whom she can inspire and be inspired by. They also help her pay the bills. Like many influencers, Ms. Towle is sometimes paid by brands when she features their products. She also draws revenue from a TikTok program in which those who have more than 10,000 followers and meet eligibility requirements are paid a commission based on how many views their videos draw. In the past year, TikTok has paid her about $20,000, according to a financial statement reviewed by The New York Times. She also works on the social media team of a large gaming company, a full-time job that allows her to work remotely and provides health insurance. Still, her TikTok fans regularly urge her to let them contribute money toward her care, and sometimes she adds a link to an Amazon wish list to her TikTok bio for Uber Eats, Airbnb and Amtrak gift cards. 'I have not begged people for money,' she said this winter. 'I didn't start TikTok and then ask people to pay my hospital bills. I've never started a GoFundMe.' But Ms. Towle's detractors consider any financial benefit an enormous grift. 'I find her obscene and offensive,' a Reddit user wrote recently. 'To see her manipulate people for money, when there are REAL people out there with REAL cancer juggling REAL problems, disgusts me.' Celebration, not Castigation To Ghassan Abou-Alfa, all of this is madness. He is a Yale-trained oncologist who specializes in liver cancer and bile duct tumors at one of the nation's leading cancer hospitals. He is also Ms. Towle's doctor. 'She has cancer,' Dr. Abou-Alfa confirmed in an interview at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan. As Ms. Towle was down the hall getting chemotherapy and simultaneously logged into video meetings for work, Dr. Abou-Alfa explained the details of his patient's intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. It started in the bile ducts in the liver, and after surgery to remove the original tumor, the cancer has recurred in her liver. The disease has also been detected in lymph nodes next to her liver. Dr. Abou-Alfa prefers not to label a 25-year-old who is responding well to treatment. But strictly speaking, she has Stage 4 cancer. Ms. Towle, Dr. Abou-Alfa said, is helping to shine a light on an emerging face of cancer, one that is young and is neither near death nor cured. Even when receiving chemotherapy and immunotherapy, some patients can maintain a fairly normal schedule, he said. 'We literally have people who come to us for treatment on their lunchtime from the office and then go back to work,' he said. 'Patients really can live with cancer. Not everybody should be looking as if they are dying.' Not necessarily every patient is thriving, or tolerating chemotherapy as well as Ms. Towle, Dr. Abou-Alfa made clear. But a number are — which is cause for celebration, he said, not castigation. 'A young patient like Sydney, or at any age really, can keep going and look very good,' he said. 'But it does not undermine that she's still living with a very serious matter.' Told that skeptics on Reddit believed Ms. Towle was lying about her diagnosis because she looked too healthy and was taking part in behavior they deemed risky, he hung his head low and shook it in disbelief. His advice to Ms. Towle, he said, has been this: The point of undergoing treatment for cancer is to preserve and prolong life, and she should live hers. 'Always what I tell her is, 'We want to steal from you one day per week'' for treatment. 'That's when you're a sick person. We have to keep the other six days for you.' If a patient feels too sick to do something, she should listen to her body. 'Logic matters,' he said. But if she has the energy to run 10 miles, he said, she can run 10 miles. If she wants to travel, he said, 'I would only be bothered if she thinks about cancer while she is away.' 'Is this normal?' Ms. Towle first noticed a bulge in her abdomen while she was out running, in 2023. She took a Snapchat picture captioned 'Is this normal?' and sent it to a friend. Then she did what many young people do when they have a medical concern: nothing. A month or two later, she felt a burning sensation in the area where she had seen the bulge. She went to urgent care. About a month later, she was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma. She was 23. At the time, Ms. Towle was living in Los Angeles, and she began treatment for cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. After treatments of chemotherapy and immunotherapy — during which she posted videos of her mother wrapping her head with ice packs to help her avoid hair loss — she underwent surgery. Her gall bladder and a large part of her liver were removed, according to a review of her medical records by The Times. Tests showed it was medically appropriate for her to receive follow-up regimens of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. But because of the effect of the chemotherapy on her white blood cell count, her doctor recommended that she pause treatment, according to medical records. On break from active treatment, Ms. Towle planned a three-week trip to Europe. She posted dozens of videos, exploring Barcelona, hiking Caminito del Rey and getting recognized in Málaga by TikTok followers. But when she returned, scans showed another tumor. Last fall, she moved to New York to be treated by Dr. Abou-Alfa. On TikTok, she received encouragement and prayers. 'I love your videos, love how positive you are and look forward to your new experiences in New York City!!!' one said. But elsewhere on the internet, anonymous commenters were discussing why someone with cancer would take a break from treatment for a vacation, only to return to make dramatic videos about her worsening illness. They ignored her truthful dispatches that answered such skepticism and decided that they did not believe her. 'I'm not a television show' Ms. Towle cannot fully understand or explain the anger that her videos incite. But TikTok's blend of truth and fiction — authenticity and marketing — probably plays a role, she said. Off camera, Ms. Towle can be quiet and serious. Sitting on the edge of the bed in her studio apartment recently, she sipped an oat milk matcha latte and reflected on her online persona. 'I'm not a television show that you're watching, which I think people have a really hard time understanding,' she said. 'I'm not a fake character. I'm a person.' She is unwilling to be bullied off social media, she said. Making videos motivates her through difficult times. 'I literally get stopped in the street,' she said. 'I'll get stopped at chemo. I'll get messages and comments from people being like, 'You have no idea how the videos you're posting keep me going.'' In interviews, cancer activists and Ms. Towle's family, friends, colleagues and health care providers said they were proud of the inspiration she was providing to others throughout her illness. But by winter, the online vitriol had intensified: 'There is something about her looks that annoys me.' 'Sydney's lies trivialize the real experiences of patients and their families. She is making money off of your suffering.' 'All of this is eventually going to catch up with her, whether she goes on to pretend to kill herself off or miraculously heals.' The anger soon leaked out of the internet and into real life. Beginning_Field_2421 urged people to complain about Ms. Towle to the companies whose products she endorsed, and also suggested that Reddit commenters show up at a cancer research fund-raiser in New York that Ms. Towle would be attending. Someone else suggested sending her photograph to cancer hospitals, implying that they need to be alerted to a potential fraudster. Another contacted the Jamaica scuba company where she and her brother had gone diving, inquiring about the protocol for allowing cancer patients to participate. On Christmas Eve, Ms. Towle brought her nurses some chocolates and turned the moment into a video. Then, a skin care company asked if it could send her gift bags to present to the nurses. She agreed — and turned that into a video, too. Soon after, Memorial Sloan Kettering received an anonymous complaint from someone using an email account called Mommynonymous@ The writer claimed she was a patient at the cancer center and said she believed Ms. Towle was receiving special treatment as a result of the gift-giving. (Someone using the same email address, meanwhile, was reaching out to Ms. Towle's fans on TikTok, urging them to join the Reddit dissection of her truthfulness.) The next time Ms. Towle arrived for chemotherapy, a hospital administrator took her aside and asked her not to bring any more gifts. In early February, 'Apple Cider Vinegar' began to stream on Netflix and quickly became a hit. The show is based on the story of Belle Gibson, an Australian influencer who built a lucrative wellness business by claiming to have cured her own cancer through nutrition. As the series grew popular, Ms. Towle noticed a surge in criticism, even on TikTok. 'My comments have been so inundated with people being like, 'You will burn in hell. You are lying,'' she said. Among the messages, she added, were death threats. She felt stuck in a cycle she had helped to create. If she quit social media, she feared her followers would believe she had something to hide. If she continued to post emotional updates, they would say she was cravenly seeking sympathy to gin up engagement. If she stopped talking about cancer in her videos, her detractors would say she was too upbeat. 'I'm sorry that they are so angry that living with cancer can look different than they think it should,' she said. 'No matter what I do, these people move the goal posts.' Snark vs. SnarkSnark But the internet loves a fight and eventually an anti-anti-Sydney contingent began to gather steam. In late February, a new Reddit group — SydTowleSnarkSnark — was created in part to criticize Ms. Towle's critics, who, some believed, were harassing her. Several people reported the original snark page to Reddit administrators, flagging various comments and specific people whose posts seemed alarmingly aggressive, including Beginning_Field_2421. Reddit told them that the content of the snark page did not violate any rules. It also warned at least one person that she was 'abusing' the reporting tool. (After Reddit was contacted by The Times, it removed some comments that it considered 'harassing,' according to a spokeswoman who said that administrators were 'in error' when they originally said there had been no violations.) One woman in the Midwest became so disgusted by the venom directed at Ms. Towle and by Reddit's apparent apathy that she took action. She spent hours trying to glean the identities of the most frequent anonymous critics, all of whom communicate on Reddit via cryptic handles, such as No-Veterinarian6552, Spirited_Coach7832 and FarTransportation152. The woman, a nurse who has worked with cancer patients, spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity so that she did not open herself to online bullying. She sleuthed out the real identities of nearly a dozen active Reddit skeptics of Ms. Towle by cross-referencing personal details they shared in comments with information on Google, Instagram, LinkedIn and even the interior photographs of a home seen in a Zillow listing. There was a woman who works at a fintech company, a woman who runs a day care center for children, a self-described yogi and a woman whose nephew died of cancer. Beginning_Field_2421, among the most persistent critics, was a woman named Connie Wright, the privacy officer for Valley Health System, headquartered in Bergen County, N.J., where she shapes and manages the organization's patient privacy practices, according to her LinkedIn profile. In a message sent to The Times on Reddit, Ms. Wright, 53, said, 'I've remained anonymous to avoid backlash or reputational harm from a public figure with a large and active online following.' She then deleted her account. The Times also contacted several other participants in the snark page. Those who responded asked not to be included in this article. Some stopped posting or deleted their social media accounts altogether. 'My cancer knowledge is extremely limited,' one of Ms. Towle's frequent critics texted. 'Please respect my privacy.' 'Lessen the load' In April, Ms. Towle was a featured speaker at a conference of the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation in Salt Lake City. 'The things that people say behind the protection of their phone are horrifying,' she said in her speech. 'I never thought that I would receive the level of hate that I have in sharing my journey.' She received a standing ovation from a rapt audience. But her return to the drudgery of chemotherapy several days later was a difficult comedown. 'I'm so overwhelmed,' she sobbed in a worrisome TikTok video. 'I'm so tired.' There was no sympathy on Reddit — where even Ms. Towle's speech at a cancer conference had not persuaded many that she had cancer. 'Grifting and manipulating is very overwhelming,' Ms. Wright posted under her Beginning_Field_2421 account, along with an unflattering screenshot of Ms. Towle as she cried. But on TikTok, fans expressed concern. Supporters left more than 3,000 comments, many of them asking if they could sit with her during chemotherapy, send her food or give her money. 'Syd — I see you,' wrote the actress and activist Alyssa Milano. 'We all love you. Start a GoFundMe so you can take care of yourself and not worry about work. Lessen the load.' The next morning, via video, Ms. Towle announced a decision that stirred up her fans and critics alike. 'I'm starting a GoFundMe, a very small one,' she said, stifling tears. She said she intended to raise $2,500 for a birthday vacation for her mother, a federal employee recently laid off by DOGE. Donations poured in. 'I don't care what my donation would be used for, Syd, I don't think any of us do,' wrote one supporter. But the Reddit community lost its mind. 'Vile,' wrote one commenter. 'I thought I'd heard it all until now.' 'Her followers are some of the most gullible people out there,' another said. In less than 24 hours, supporters donated $41,000, and Ms. Towle stopped accepting contributions. She was overwhelmed by the outpouring, she told her followers. After taking her brother and mother to the Grand Canyon, she said, she would use the remaining money to pay travel and hotel expenses for her mother to be with her in New York when she had chemotherapy. On TikTok, many people urged her to reopen the fund. 'Don't steal our joy of being able to donate,' one wrote. 'Open it back up!' In an interview, Ms. Towle said she felt torn between her followers' enthusiasm and the fact that she did not truly need donations. 'It's hard to say that I wish I hadn't done it, or that I wish I hadn't started this whole life on social media,' she said. 'It's obviously brought so many good things. But there's just so much stress behind the scenes that people don't see.' A day after shutting down the fund-raiser, she made another video. 'After talking to my mom for a while,' she said, 'I've decided to reopen the GoFundMe.' After five days, her TikTok fans had donated more than $75,000. The grousing on the snark page was short-lived. Last week, a day after The Times sent Reddit a detailed inquiry about its inaction, the company abruptly shut down the group. In its place was the image of a gavel. SydTowleSnark, the company announced, was officially banned.
