Melissa Quinn was arrested and charged. Photo / Facebook
Melissa Quinn was arrested and charged. Photo / Facebook
Australian Melissa Quinn revealed the gut-wrenching moments in her battle with three types of cancer to television cameras and described how she travelled to America for groundbreaking proton treatment.
But police now say the northern New South Wales mother-of-four's heartbreaking story was all a lie.
They say she raked in a total of A$45,000 ($48,000) between 2014 and 2016 in an elaborate scam which even fooled former Test captain Michael Clarke, news.com.au reports.
The 35-year-old's story was featured on ABC's 7.30 in January 2016 when she told the show she started to feel severe pain several months after the birth of one of her children.
"It turned out that I had abnormalities of the uterus," Quinn, from Casino, told the show. "[The doctors] suggested it was cancer and I didn't want to muck around with it.
"They got me in and did a hysterectomy. They didn't do a full one just part of one and I seemed to recover quite well and it was another 12 or 14 months after that I started getting sick again."
She then told ABC that she was diagnosed with cancer in her brain and under the soft tissue under her birthmark on her left leg in June 2014.
"It was very hard not just on me but on the kids and the family," she said.
Her partner Rodney told the show how they broke the news of Quinn's illness to family and friends.
"We put the two boys in a room with her parents and sat down and told them that she had been given two years," he said.
Ms Quinn said she had terminal brain cancer. Photo / Facebook
She then described how Cricket NSW contacted her to see what they could do to help and, with the help of her local community of Casino, they helped raise the funds. She claims to have travelled to the United States by herself shortly after.
"It was hard knowing that she might not come back," her partner told 7.30.
"It was a big risk for her to fly over there, a massive risk."
She claimed the proton therapy treatment was a success.
But then in 2016, she allegedly claimed she had contracted ovarian cancer and chronic myeloid leukaemia.
Police say she allegedly concocted the elaborate story in 2014 to raise money for an all-expenses paid trip to California to undergo "lifesaving" proton radiation therapy.
Former Australian captain Michael Clarke was one of three Test players to donate signed and framed playing shirts for auction for a $70 per head fundraising event in her honour in October 2014 held at the Casino RSM Club.
She told a local newspaper in 2014 that she had only two years left to live after being diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
"I had cancer two-and-a-half years ago in the uterus, so it wasn't a huge surprise that it's come back," she told The Northern Star.
"The Australian Medical Board is covering 90 per cent of my costs to go to California to receive proton radiation therapy.
"But we need to make up the money for eight weeks of airfares, clinical fees and everyday expenses.
"We've estimated we need to raise A$20,000."
Police allege that Quinn received a total of A$45,000 ($48,000) from the fundraisers. She was also selected as one of about 10 Australians to receive proton therapy treatment overseas under a program funded by the Federal Government, at a cost of about A$200,000 ($278,000) per patient.
Police say she travelled overseas in December 2014 using the money raised.
The Daily Telegraph reports that Quinn was the first female cricketer to win entry to Westfield Sports High and who once played cricket for NSW's women's under-19s, had since moved on to a role as a cricket development officer in northern NSW, near her home in Casino.
She is charged with four counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, one count of making false document to obtain financial advantage, and using a false document to obtain financial advantage.
She was arrested and charged on Tuesday and granted conditional bail.
Under her bail conditions Quinn is forbidden from approaching or contacting any prosecution witness or any member of Cricket NSW involved in the matter.
The matter is set down for mention in Casino Local Court on April 18, 2018.
