A US woman has admitted to faking her own cancer in a disturbing ploy to save her marriage.
Amy Ellissa Hammer was arrested after an investigation found that she had pretended to suffer from Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow.
The mother-of-three, aged 30, told Fox 8 she lied about having cancer after her husband threatened to leave her.
'When he said he was going to leave me, it was an impulsive thing. We’ve been together so long, I was scared, terrified. That’s my three kids, my husband that I’ve known for so long. So it was an impulsive thing and it snowballed,' she said.
'I have to deal with what I’ve done and that I hate myself. But I am sorry, I have to live with this. What I have done has hurt a lot of people, a lot.'
Randolph County Sheriff’s Office
According to the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office, Hammer created a fundraising Facebook page called Amy's Promise, where she accepted donations and sold t-shirts.
After her arrest, a planned fundraiser at the Trinity Wesleyan Church of Seagrove was cancelled.
Police are now investigating how much money was donated to Hammer's fake cancer cause and how many victims are impacted.
Hammer was charged with obtaining property by false pretense and is due to face court on April 22.
