A prominent breast cancer fundraiser turns out to not be the cancer survivor that she led everyone to believe she was.
Tracy Dart was an inspiration to other cancer survivors.
Her eight year struggle with breast cancer led her to become a top fundraisers for cancer research.
Her advocacy was inspiring, and drew sponsorships and a high profile.
Tracy’s fundraising team, “Team Tracy” raised more than $400,000USD for the Susan G. Komen Foundation over the years.
But in past few days it has emerged that Dart never had cancer.
Her family reportedly made the discovery when Dart was admitted to hospital for liver problems and her medical history showed no signs of the disease.
The news of her deception broke after one of Dart’s sponsors, a local car dealership, spilled the beans.
Matthew Welch, the owner of Auburn Volkswagen in Seattle, told local news that a member of Dart’s team had come to see him to break the news.
“The first words were ‘she doesn’t have cancer’. ‘She never had cancer’ were the second words, and it just blew my mind,” he said.
Dart’s blog and Facebook pages have since been taken down, and the Komen Foundation says the money Dart raised through them went to charity.
“Komen was notified of this situation last week and has been in contact with Tracy’s family,” the foundation’s PR manager in the region, Christi Ball Loso, told The West Seattle Herald.