Trapped at my desk cancer hoax

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Mystery cancer hoax victim 'Amanda'.

TrappedAtMyDesk was the twitter ID of an individual who is now believed to have been a cancer hoaxster.[1] "Amanda", the name the twitter user identified herself as, told her followers that she had been diagnosed with terminal "brain cancer" in January 2013, and had three months left to live. During the next three months the twitter ID gathered 5,141 followers. The final tweet, identified it as coming from her brother, announced Amanda's death.[2] Many of her followers characterized Amanda's final struggle as inspiring. Amanda's story acquired a second life when Shannon McKarney, one of her twitter followers, set some of her more inspiring tweets to music, and published a YouTube video -- one that has garnered almost one million viewings.[3][4][5][6][7]

But some skeptical readers have tried and failed to find a trace of the cancer sufferer "in real life" -- and have concluded the original tweets were a hoax.[1][7]

The narrative

Amanda identified herself as a lowly Government worker, in Ottawa -- and a single woman and follower of the goth lifestyle in her personal life.[1]

The youtube video

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jennifer Mendelsohn (2014-02-08). "Amanda, @TrappedAtMyDesk on Twitter, Dies, Age Unknown: She is survived by her 5,141 followers, but did she ever exist?". Medium blog. Archived from the original on 2014-02-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20140208204615/https://medium.com/p/c52d46189d3. 
  2. ↑ "My dear little sister Amanda passed away". Twitter. 2013-04. Archived from the original on 2014-02-08. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FTrappedAtMyDesk%2Fstatus%2F323840866483589120&date=2014-02-08. "My dear little sister Amanda passed away from brain cancer late last night. -James" 
  3. ↑ "Dead woman’s Twitter feed inspires blogger". Ottawa Metro. 2014-01-15. Archived from the original on 2014-01-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20140129141822/http://metronews.ca/news/ottawa/910257/dead-womans-twitter-feed-inspires-blogger/. Retrieved 2014-02-08. "“I debated whether to make this video, and debated even more whether to post it,” McKarney wrote. “It’s not my story to tell, and I don’t know if Amanda would have wanted it told this way. But ultimately, I’ve chosen to publish it as a tribute to her and a reminder to all of us: sometime, we will leave it behind.”" 
  4. ↑ "Shannon McKarney makes tribute video out of tweets by Amanda '@TrappedAtMyDesk', who died of a brain tumour" (in English). The Australian News. Archived from the original. Error: If you specify |archiveurl=, you must also specify |archivedate=. https://web.archive.org/web/20140122202933/http://www.news.com.au/technology/twitter/shannon-mckarney-makes-tribute-video-out-of-tweets-by-amanda-trappedatmydesk-who-died-of-a-brain-tumour/story-fnjwvo72-1226805765877. Retrieved 2014-02. 
  5. ↑ Chloe Glover (2014-01-17). "Video: Young woman's tweets from the last moments of her life turned into inspirational online tribute". Daily Mirror (UK). Archived from the original. Error: If you specify |archiveurl=, you must also specify |archivedate=. https://web.archive.org/web/20140118235420/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/video-young-womans-tweets-last-3032024. Retrieved 2014-02. "The footage, which has gained over 340,000 views on YouTube, shows hand-picked tweets from Amanda's @trappedatmydesk twitter handle, which detail observations made during the last two years of her life." 
  6. ↑ Rebecca Rose (2014-01-14). "Your Evening Cry: A Life Told Through Twitter". Jezebel magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-02-08. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fjezebel.com%2Fi-dont-know-i-think-all-this-internet-hoaxes-have-made-1501636633&date=2014-02-08. "A hard video to watch, especially if you've lost someone to the rat bastard that is cancer, like too many of us have." 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Neco Cockburn (2014-01-15). "A touching tribute to someone she never met: Blogger’s video assembles Ottawa writer’s final tweets". Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on 2014-02-08. https://web.archive.org/web/20140208204737/http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/touching+tribute+someone+never/9392105/story.html. "There’s no easy way to confirm the authenticity of the tweets. McKarney knows. She tried, after creating a video that set the tweets to music." 
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