Unknown to its celeb backers, a charity for sick children was not all it seemed. And as its founder appealed for cash for her own daughter’s brain tumour, things began to unravel
Jean O’Brien with her daughter Megan Bhari(Image: BBC Studios)
Believe In Magic was the much-loved charity backed by One Direction that granted wishes for children diagnosed with cancer. However, a new three-part BBC documentary called The Mother Of All Cons will reveal how, unknown to the charity’s many celebrity backers, a dark deception was taking place behind the scenes.
“It’s the wildest, most bizarre story,” says Nick Bird, a parent who investigated the charity. “It’s fiction but it’s actually real and it actually happened, it’s bonkers.”
Believe In Magic was founded in 2010 by 16-year-old Megan Bhari and her mother Jean O’Brien, who said Megan had been diagnosed with a brain tumour. When Megan tagged her pop heroes in her posts, they kindly helped to promote the charity.
They wore Believe In Magic charity bracelets at gigs and Louis Tomlinson even hosted a Believe In Magic Cinderella Ball at London’s Natural History Museum. Together, Megan and her mum Jean helped create incredible memories for children who had been dealt life’s toughest blow.
Charity events took place in Hamleys, Downing Street and even Buckingham Palace. Naturally when Megan herself fell ill, the families who the charity had helped were willing to give back and donate their own money.
But when Jean created an new appeal to raise £120,000, saying Megan needed lifesaving emergency treatment in 2015, Nick and another parent called Joanna Ashcroft began to realise things didn’t add up.
Joanna explains, “My red flag was because of my experience with my son. I always felt that we were very unlucky that the treatment that we really wanted was in America. And it always felt when you saw an appeal that it was usually always neuroblastoma.
“So when I saw that Megan had appealed a few times to go to America and she didn’t have neuroblastoma, I was interested because it was unusual. That’s what made me look back to see what kind of treatment she needed. I couldn’t see any kind of information about doctors or anything like that. That was a huge red flag.”
Nick was also concerned but he had no idea how deep and how dark the deception ran. “Me and Jo were thinking things independently,” he says. “This happened within our community, our children both went through very aggressive paediatric cancer, my son died as did our friend’s son.
“We’re not keyboard warriors trying to find out something the police might have missed, but when Meg’s appeal came about then me and friends would discuss the language that was used and the types of things that were being said that seemed very exaggerated and didn’t chime with our experiences.”
Joanna and Nick noticed that the appeals seemed to follow a pattern and decided to wait and see if another was arranged. “We were confident there would be a next appeal,” says Nick. “It seemed like there was a pattern so we said let’s wait and next time it happens we’ll get to the bottom of it. Those were quite fateful words.”
Megan and Jean did raise the money and did go to America. However, they didn’t go to a hospital, they went to Disneyland.
Nick was shocked. “I’m not sure I ever thought I was completely and utterly right,” he says. “We never suggested that Megan didn’t have anything wrong with her. For me, it was what they were purporting to say online was not true. It could be grossly exaggerated for all sorts of reasons.”
In 2017, the UK Charity Commission opened a formal statutory inquiry into Believe In Magic after discovering severe financial mismanagement and indications of misconduct. The charity’s accounts were frozen and it was discovered Jean had been transferring charity money into her own bank account. Over £100,000 was missing.
However, Jean and Megan had an army of supporters who turned on Nick and Joanna.
“It was awful,” says Joanna. “We’re human at the end of the day and it was really difficult to take. We wanted to make sure that this very vulnerable community was protected. I think that Jean was telling them constantly, ‘Look what these people are doing to me.’ The name calling was just venomous.”
When Megan died in 2018, Jean maintained it was a brain tumour had caused her daughter’s death. However, an autopsy found no evidence of a brain tumour, stating that Megan’s brain was normal. Instead the post mortem examination concluded she had died of acute cardiac arrhythmia brought on by fatty liver disease.
In 2022, Kingston Social Services carried out a review which concluded that Megan Bhari was a victim of Fabricated or Induced Illness, also known as Munchausen by Proxy.
“It was only post Megan’s death that we really started to find out that we were correct and had those things not happened, had the inquest not happened, then the narrative today would have been very different,” claims Nick.
Now Joanna is hoping charges will be brought against Jean. “She got away with it,” claims Joanna. “I definitely tried my hardest to get the Charity Commission, the police, action fraud, then the police again to investigate. As of yet, she hasn’t faced any justice, but in an ideal world, for me, she would.”
The BBC repeatedly approached Jean O’Brien for comment but, to date, has not received a response.
The Mother Of All Cons, Sunday 31 May, 9pm, BBC Two
