Father Speaks Out, Bail Hearing Scheduled For Woman Accused Of Faking Cancer

“She’s destroyed her life,” Michael Kirilow told CityNews.ca, speaking of his estranged daughter Ashley Kirilow. She’s accused of pretending to have terminal cancer, defrauding volunteers and donors out of as much as $20, 000.

Ashley was arrested Friday by Halton fraud investigators after turning herself into the Oakville police. She spent the weekend in a Milton prison and is facing three charges of fraud under $5,000. If convicted, she faces a maximum of two years in jail.

Michael Kirilow says he first became aware something suspicious was going on when Ashley called him in January of 2009, telling him she was dying of cancer and needed a bone marrow transplant. He and his wife volunteered to be tested to see if they were donors, but Ashley wouldn’t give them the name of her oncologist and the hospital she claimed to be receiving treatment at had no record of her.

Ashley and her father then had a falling out, with her telling him to stay out of her life.

She founded a charity “Change For A Cure,” attending many charity events in her honour, receiving a free trip to Disney World and donations from countless people. Ashley was scheduled to walk from Burlington to the University of Alberta in April to hand-deliver the money that was raised. But that never happened and the money is gone.

By the end of 2009, Ashley had racked up more than $30, 000 in personal debts and in January declared bankruptcy with just $1, 000 in assets.

“She’s taken advantage of good human nature, good hearted people that wanted to help,” said her father.

In April of this year things started unraveling.

 “I asked her, you don’t have cancer, do you?” Kirilow said. “She responded no. I asked her about her hair, she told she shaved her head, shaved her eyebrows, plucked her eyelashes.”

Kirilow told his daughter it was time to come clean. In the meantime, volunteers from her charity, “Change For a Cure” started putting the pieces together.

Halton police received a complaint on June 28. In a press release, they said “An investigation by fraud bureau investigators with the Halton Regional Police Service has determined that the woman does not have cancer or any other life threatening illness and that funds raised were converted for her own use,”

Ashley has said she did this to get back at her parents for an unhappy childhood and a broken home.

“She had two loving families that cared for her and wanted her. She had every opportunity to succeed. Her life was no different than millions of other peoples…it was never enough for her,” says her father.

Ashley Kirilow will be appearing for a bail hearing at the Milton courthouse Monday morning. She has commented to several media outlets that she plans to pay back the money that was raised.