"Inside the Shocking Scam: How ‘Fairy Godmothers’ Deceived One Direction Stars with a Heartbreaking Twist"

IT was the charity that made dreams come true, granting wishes to seriously ill children. It even had the support of the biggest boy band in the world at the time – One Direction.

Set up in 2012 by 16-year-old Megan Bhari, who was suffering from a brain tumour, Believe in Magic became a powerhouse within the child cancer community.

Megan Bhari, left, and her mother Jean, right, with 1D’s Louis Tomlinson and his late mum Johannah Deakin Megan with Harry Styles’ mum Anne Twist, who raised money for her, in 2014

Driven by , the attracted generous donations, sending personalised gifts to families and arranging lavish events to offer some magic and escapism.

Exclusive parties at Hamleys toy store and a Princesses Day at in which excited little girls were given beautiful dresses to wear, made by the designer of ’s bridesmaids outfits, culminated in the glittering Cinderella Ball at the National History Museum, organised and hosted by One Direction’s and his mum, Johanna.

Megan and Jean became known as the ‘fairy godmothers.’ But not all fairytales end happily.

It turned out that at all. In fact donations to the charity went into Jean’s bank account and the pair spent money on lavish trips to Disneyland, travelling in style on the Queen Mary 2 cruise liner and even on a private plane.

The charity attracted generous donations even hosted a glittering Cinderella Ball at the National History Museum, organised and hosted by One Direction’s Louis Credit: BBC It turned out that Megan did not have a brain tumour and charitable donations went straight to mum Jean’s bank account

In the three-part TV documentary, Mother of All Cons, Megan’s half-sister Nina speaks for the first time and, in an exclusive interview Joanna Ashcroft and Nick Bird, the parents of sick children whose investigation closed the charity down, tell The Sun they faced vicious online attacks from other parents loyal to Megan and Jean as they exposed their lies.

“Our second child, Corey, was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive cancer,” says Jo.

“I would go online all hours looking for survivor stories, looking for hope. Believe in Magic opened up that world for parents. When you are going through the most horrendous time of your life, you connect with other parents who understand.”

It was on this community forum, in which parents of sick children supported each other, that Jo met Nick, whose son Adam, also had cancer.

When Jean announced that Megan’s condition had worsened and that expensive treatment in the United States was her only remaining option, supporters were only too eager to help give something back and within just two days, the necessary £120,000 was raised.

But after two weeks in the US, Jean messaged to say that Megan’s brain tumour had grown so much that it was thought operating on her would be too dangerous and so they were returning home.

Some parents began to quietly ask questions, drawing on their own experiences of overseas medical treatment, but they were too frightened to speak out.

“Jean could be quite nasty with anyone who disagreed with her online,” says Jo. “I saw one post where she said, ‘You weren’t saying that when we gave you that iPad’.”

In the summer of 2016, Jean announced they were both in the US where Megan was being treated for having recently contracted septicaemia and severe immune-deficiency.

It was at that moment that a bombshell message within the online community was dropped by one of the parents, Sarah Smith, doubting what was going on.

It read: “Do you have any evidence that Meg is seriously ill? Why will Jean not say which hospital they are in? When you’re appealing for money, you have to be transparent. Ask yourself, what do you actually know about Meg?”

Sarah Smith was actually Joanna Ashcroft.

Bhari travelled on a private jet and luxury liners and stayed at Disney resorts Credit: Twitter When Jean said expensive treatment in the US was Megan’s final option, supporters were keen to help and £120,000 was raised Credit: BBC

“I had been in this cancer world for a couple of years so you get to know the oncologists, the reasons why people travel and which hospitals they are in,” she says. “So, purely out of interest, I was looking for that information. And it was very vague.

“The problems Meg was having were all so extreme. They were at death’s door with one infection after another. I’d never heard anything like it. There were just so many questions.

“Were they amazing women who were just doing this for the children? Was Megan really sick? Or are they doing this for money?

“All the money went straight into Jean’s bank account and the trustees of the charity were members of her family. I just thought that was wrong. So, I messaged Nick, saying ‘I smell a rat’.”

Nick had stepped away from the community after Adam had sadly passed away in 2013, but his interest was piqued.

He came up with the idea of offering to donate some money directly to the hospital where Meg was being treated, to find out where it was, but Jean replied that you couldn’t do that in the US.

“I had spent months in the US with Adam having treatment, so I knew that was nonsense,” he says.

Using his background in IT to locate Jean and Megan he found that she was not in intensive care at all but at a £600-a-night suite in Disneyland, Florida.

‘Jean was a very different mum to her than she was to me and my two older brothers’, says Nina Credit: BBC Joanna Ashcroft faced vicious online attacks from other parents loyal to Megan and Jean as she exposed their lies Credit: BBC

“The big question now is – does she really have a brain tumour? How ill is she?” he says. “Because Meg can’t be desperately fighting for her life in hospital while simultaneously staying in Disneyland.”

Concerned that a fun, luxury holiday was being funded by donations, Jo emailed the to ask when they were going to put a stop to it.

Jean wrote to “Sarah Smith”, saying she wasn’t sure who she was but she was harassing her and her “seriously ill daughter”.

She said that because of their relationship with , they and her had come to an agreement that their room would have round the block nursing, essentially “hospice care” and for Meg to receive exactly the same care as she would in hospital.

After Nick directly revealed himself and his suspicions to Jean, she found out that Sarah Smith was Joanna and emailed them both a worrying a video of her daughter with oxygen prongs in her nose. Megan talked of their “disgusting accusations” and how they have “broken our hearts”.

But Nick noticed that the monitor behind her showed her oxygen levels were at 100 per cent. This did not match the illness Jean was telling everyone that Megan had.

After five months in Disneyland, they returned on the Queen Mary 2. Joanna had hired a private detective to take pictures of them, disembarking at Southampton Dock.

They were seen pushing trolleys, laden with suitcases, laughing and smiling like holidaymakers.

In January 2017, the Charity Commission decided to freeze Believe in Magic’s accounts Credit: BBC Megan with the crew of a private polar plane she enjoyed a ride in Credit: BBC

“I felt vindicated because I’d been reading all these updates about her having 24-hour oxygen lines and needing a wheelchair,” says Jo.

“It wasn’t concrete proof that there was no brain tumour, but it was proof that that Megan or Jean – whoever was writing the updates – was not being honest about what was happening to Megan.”

They sent the the photographs but were cautioned not to put them in the public domain. Frustrated, the pair decided to put everything out in the open and let their community members decide for themselves, by setting up a page called The Truth about Meg and Jean.

All hell broke loose. Nick and Jo were bombarded with vitriolic comments from parents who refused to believe anything they said.

“We thought there would be a groundswell of people wanting to know what the truth was,” says Nick.

“I think that was naïve. Then, like a bolt out of the blue, I received a Facebook message – ‘Don’t doubt yourself. You’re on the right track.’ And the person who had sent that was Nina, Jean’s daughter and Meg’s older half-sister.”

Nina grew up with her family in West Sussex and found herself shunned by her controlling mother after Megan was born.

“Jean was all about impressing people” she says. “She was editor of this little village magazine. All the curtains were Laura Ashley. There was a blue Aga. Everyone thought she was the perfect mother.

Jean’s daughter Nina says her mum was ‘controlling’ and ‘all about impressing people’ so people thought she was the ‘perfect mother’ Credit: BBC Nick says he ‘felt sick’ when he got the news Megan had died as she ‘must had had something serious after all’ Credit: BBC

“When I was 12, Meg was born. I was over the moon. Jean was a very different mum to her than she was to me and my two older brothers and sister. She did everything for Meg.

“When Meg wanted to go to Harrods to get ice cream, they would go. Or whatever it was she wanted. Meg was well and healthy until she was 13 when Jean started to say there were various things wrong with her – headaches, temperatures and being rushed to A&E.

“When I saw The Truth about Meg and Jean, I felt, ‘It’s not just me. There are other people out there not falling for this crap.’”

In January 2017, the Charity Commission decided to freeze Believe in Magic’s accounts.

Nick and Jo, considered it ‘job done’ and went back to their own lives as Jean and Megan disappeared. Then, on the morning of 28 March, 2018, Jean posted to say that Megan had died.

“We felt sick,” says Nick. “We had come to the conclusion that she didn’t have anything life-threatening and so when she died, we thought she must had had something serious after all.”

Jean wrote that Megan had died from eight heart attacks and being a contributing factor.

Jo didn’t believe Jean’s account and adds: “I wondered what Jean was capable of if she could lie about her own daughter’s death?”

Jean wrote that Megan had died from eight heart attacks and sepsis – but the coroner said her death was caused by fatty liver disease Credit: BBC Jean, who has never faced criminal charges, moved to France after the inquest and is said to be using a fake name to reinvent herself Credit: BBC

A coroner’s inquest into her death revealed that she did not die of a heart attack but of cardiac arrhythmia, caused by fatty liver disease. The coroner added that her brain appeared to be normal.

Nina managed to get hold of Megan’s extensive medical notes and discovered that she had been taking huge amounts of morphine and that Jean had even forged pharmacy orders for it to buy in bulk from suppliers.

“Was it just the morphine that was making her ill?” Nina wonders.

In 2022, Kingston social services carried out a review in to Megan’s case, and concluded that it was likely that Jean had the rare Munchausen by Proxy – a form of abuse in which an individual, usually the mother, feigns, exaggerates or induces illness in her own child in order to gain attention and sympathy.

It also keeps the child dependent, which is something that a lot of perpetrators relish.

Jean moved to France after the inquest where Nina claims she is using a fake name to reinvent herself as an online social media influencer for the over 60s. She has never faced any criminal charges.

“Jean blamed Megan, because she said it was her who dealt with the financial receipts,” says Jo. “Jean has never faced any kind of justice.

“I have huge sympathy for Megan. I think she was very, very vulnerable to have a parent like that.”

Nick agrees, “If somehow she could have been separated from the clutches of Jean, her life may have been different.”

Both Jean and the trustees of the Believe in Magic charity were approached for comment by the documentary team but they did not respond.

• Mother of All Cons is on BBC2 and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 31 May