Scamanda - Chapter 4 — Terminal. Miracle.

Episode Date: May 29, 2023

Amanda’s journey with cancer is like a rollercoaster that never ends. Her friend Lindsey explains that it was a constant back and forth of terminal, miracle, terminal, miracle. Nancy continues looking into whether Amanda is really faking it all. Amanda drops a bombshell on her friends Lisa and Steve. Scamanda is a Lionsgate Sound podcast: http://lionsgatesound.com Hosted by Charlie Webster. New episodes every Monday. Listen to another Lionsgate Sound podcast hosted by Charlie Webster, Died & Survived: https://link.chtbl.com/diedandsurvived?sid=sc Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm Charlie Webster. You're listening to Scamander. And to see Riley, her beaten cancer three times in his many years. Her blog, detailing her rollercoaster journey, was really backing up the hits. It seemed to be Sunday night, Wednesday, and Fridays. Or, you know, she would post and somebody would ultimately yell out in the newsroom. There's a new post and we would all like run to our desk and read. The whole reason for this blog was to inform people about cancer and break that uncomfortable walk on eggshell stigma that can follow. Motivate and educate others fighting and have a mentor of sorts for my kids

and my family no matter where the strunny leads. So to see this little old blog, by a random girl, getting attention doing the things I intended, it's awesome. So thanks. Maybe a couple years into her blog, it was removed for a time. She kind of removed herself for a time. The blog would be up for a long time, and then she would shut it down.

And then she would open up the blog again with a new post, and then she would shut it down. Like, nobody could see it. And what I had heard happened is that she was being sued for faking cancer. Lindsay Wilder, a manned as friend from church. But it was a whole mix-up because there was someone else named Amanda Riley, who died from cancer. And there was another Amanda Riley, a 17-year-old girl who lost her life to cancer in 2010, two years before our Amanda Riley first started her blog.

To add to the confusion, a foundation was started in the name of the deceased Amanda Riley. And so the idea was that, oh, it was a mix-up. Then she was back in the game. Terminal miracle. The cancer relapsed into my lung. The doctors were unsure if it was a whole new cancer in and of itself, due to the ridiculously high amounts of chemo.

Terminal miracle. More people, bigger goals, stronger prayer, unbreakable faith. This is how we win this. Every time I sit down and say no more, the right person at the right time picks me up and says no. Keep walking, keep moving, don't stop now. I'm so grateful and thankful and faithful for that. Terminal miracle. Jesus always. Terminal miracle. Jesus always. Terminal miracle. I just relapsed again.

This is the first time I've relapsed while still on active treatment. Terminal miracle. It's hard to write, and I'm sure hard to read. But with no treatment, I'll maybe make it two to three months. Maybe she could die today,

maybe she could die Tuesday. I'm supposed to write end of three months. Maybe she could die today, maybe she could die Tuesday. I'm supposed to write end of life letters, make a healthcare directive, as well as a living well. No 29 year old should ever have to write good by letters to family or compose a well. But here we are. Jesus came into everything. She would correct people saying,

oh, there are no coincidences. It's all miracles from God. Humans are inherently selfish, so it's hard for me to believe that all these actions and the timing alongside them are pure coincidence. And that really just started to seep into me. And before I knew it, I was talking like that. I prayed for every single night. Every night, I thought good intentions could save her. Amanda was a big deal at the mega-church FCC,

Family Community Church in San Jose. At FCC, we are on mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. We have values that drive us. Number one, we're after life change. That was the best church I've ever been to. This is Vanu-Ruisse, former leader at the youth group and counter at FCC.

They talked about transformation, but they talked about things of like, why it's important to transform, versus, oh, just do it because you don't want to go to hell. There's so many churches that preach about just too much of a sin because you're going to go to hell and it's like, well, why do I like to sin? Why does sin feel good? Why do I like to do these things?

I loved that they always got to the root and they didn't like play church. They didn't play it. They were very like, let's talk about it. And let's go through it together. So that's one thing I loved about my young adult screw. It was called encounter, it was great. It was very involved in your life. We would have barbecues after church,

watch the game together. And that was really where for me, because back then you're not supposed to watch TV. You couldn't listen to Backstreet Boys. Let me tell you, you couldn't listen to Backstreet Boys, okay? That's how religion the church was. Like, really? Yeah, the church was, you had to wear skirts,

can't cut your hair, no makeup, it was, yeah, it was what you were raised in. Yes. My pastor, he was really young. At the time, he was only like 23. This was Pastor Chase. We have this belief as a church and as a group, then when you get to know Jesus, your life is never the same. That's Pastor Chase, speaking on a Promo video for FCC. He had a great personality, the way he would tell stories from the Bible, and then he would

make it relatable. So I loved that. I only knew Amanda through church leadership. I never hung out with her. Like she came to my home, I came to her home, it was like that was more of like we were at the barbecues, at the retreats. She just came off so supportive, encouraging, and she always made you seen. She always made people seen. So that's one thing I like I really, you know,

admired about Amanda. Her story was interesting because she had it and it came back. It came back again. And then it went away again and then it came back. It came back again. And then it went away again, and then it came back. They did a Q&A for a story, for a whole story. I've been fighting the stage more blood cancer for the past three years, to the point that doctors don't want to treat me anymore. And she talked about how she had cancer

when she was pregnant. It was very inspiring. When you're sitting there like, wow, I'll never forget she said this one thing because someone asked her, like, how do you cope with this knowing that you have cancer and that you could die, like doctors tell you could die any moment and you have this time to live. She said, I just know that this world is not my home.

And I'll never let stuck with me forever. This world is not my home, and I'm going somewhere else, so I could handle it. And I just, oh, wow. Like, you know, she's a very strong person. I have that kind of mindset. They developed a new drug. I'm unotherapy.

And they wanted to give it a try on me. We've been warring and praying and fundraising. And the doctor told me that I like your positivity, but you need to understand that in your situation, this drug working would be like rain in California. A presence was like, she was known for the person who was really like strong going through this stuff and overcoming it.

After Amanda spoke on stage at the church, Pastor Chase rallied the congregation to pray for her healing. The new church of hands towards this woman is I pray right now. Father, we thank you for a man that's seen right, that we thank you for the life that she has led. God, I thank you, Father, that there is truth in the fact that you will never leave us or forsake us even in the midst of the end of the age while they got some more upright right now healing into her body.

Everyone was just like an all of like wow like this is. I couldn't imagine being in her shoes. You can just tell the crowd was very like, can't believe that happened and how do you deal with life and it was crazy because even on the screen, it showed pictures. There was pictures of her in the hospital. What were the pictures like?

She was in the hospital. Very upset, looked defeated. There were pictures of her crying. It did make you feel bad for her. It did make you feel like old dang. She's really going through it. And she's trying to be an influencer at the same time, using her story for the right way.

But she posted a lot. Thousands of people backing a random 30 year old girl with stage four blood cancer, supporting sacrifice, saying praying and worrying for victory. If you don't see the good in the world, please follow my story. I'm proud of hashtag team Amanda. It started a silly hashtag notion of support that has grown into a movement of thousands

representing so much more now. Thank you, Cancer. I appreciate you for that. She was just very detailed about what her battle was. She was very knowledgeable about the medical terms and what someone going through chemotherapy wouldatherapy would go through. That's Penny Freiley, a volunteer at Charity American Cancer Society. She had a little port that my dad actually had to have one towards the end of his countermeadows. And, you know, she had it taped here.

And she says, oh, I get this out in a couple days. A few other updates. I got a port after nearly three years without one, only to have it get infected after two weeks and have to have it removed. Now I have to get another one. She was just so detailed and eloquently detailed about what someone who had gone through a true

cancer battle would be like. This was not a misunderstanding. This was not someone mishearing something or mistaking something. She was explicit in every aspect of talking about her cancer journey. She talked about having spots on her brain. She talked about particular doctors that were running clinical trials, specifically in New York, that she had said she used the, it's a, called the Hope Lodge and it's a called the HOPE BLOGE and it's a program the American Cancer Society provides free lodging for cancer patients. She told me that she was, she'd used that. In

fact, I used her as an example a couple times when I spoke to people about it's, you know, this isn't a statistic. I know someone, you know, took advantage of this program and was able to get free lodging in New York because you know, that's expensive. Then there were the physical manifestations of cleaning shaving her head because she lost her hair due to chemotherapy. Penny lost her father to cancer. My dad got real sick. It was hard. He had a colorectal cancer.

It started with a 14-hour surgery where they took everything out. And so he was on a stoma. Getting no longer processed waste like we do. He had a bag. He was on a bag. Interestingly enough, we ran into Amanda at the hospital when my dad was having this horrible surgery. She had a bag with her, and she told us she was there for maintenance chemotherapy. And this was like at 10 o'clock at night, because he'd gone in for surgery at 6 o'clock, and we had just been able to see him for the first time. She said she was there like I said, for chemotherapy.

She had a little bag of supplies with her. She had stuff in her hand, and she held it up, and it was almost like she had to explain why she had it. And she said, oh yeah, no, I just had my chemotherapy and they gave me some stuff to take home. When she surprised to see you, Where she's surprised to see you. She did not expect to see us. Where she's supportive of why you are there.

And your father? Yes, she was. And she's like, oh, I'm so sorry. I know how hard it can be. And my mom, I remember my mom. She was pretty vulnerable at the time. And she just told Amanda how grateful she was that Amanda was doing well

and that the experimental treatment was working and that she was so grateful that those boys were gonna have her. And, you know, she knew she had a battle ahead of her, but she was just, my mom was so glad to see her. I actually bought tickets for she and Corey. The first was the Rock and the Rack and this was February 2016. It's in a blog. You know, she talks about Rock and the Rack against cancer. We raised $10,000 for cancer.

It was at the saddle rack in Fremont. And I bought tickets so that they could come. The tickets were $20 each. And I thought, let me make this easy on them. And they showed up and they were all about it and they're in blog and took pictures with everybody. Thank you for the prayers. We are so grateful. Prayer's work. We have seen that time and time again. I'm so grateful for every extra second I get, whether that's a day or a year. We celebrated at Rockin' the Rack against Cancer to raise money to combat this disgusting disease. We had a great time. Thanks, Penny, for inviting us. They raised upwards of $10,000. Way to go!

The second was packed the park with purple and that was an event we did with the San Jose Giants. I bought them baseball tickets and my friend Patty had bought out the little patio on the side And the Tickets were not cheap. Those tickets were expensive. So Amanda and her whole family went in there and had barbecue on Patty's dime. Patty's a cancer survivor and really wanted to do something nice and boy, Amanda just milked that whole thing. And she showed up to the Pacta Park

with purple wearing an outfit and she had on the Tickets. And she was like, nice and boy Amanda just milked that whole thing and she showed up to the packed the pack with purple wearing an outfit and she had on socks that said survivor. She had her port taped on. She went out and stood on the field with the other cancer survivors including my parents. I made a hurt on the field and released global and she said she was just so happy that she could still participate

in things like this as a survivor. I was an honored guest at the Pack the Park Purple at the San Jose Giant's game. So much fun. Jump houses, games, raffles, food. They started with honoring the survivors on the field followed by a survivor video on the Megatrons. I was on it three times with my kiddos. It made me smile. This year was extra special because Jamie, Jess's big sister who I've

known since she was six, is a childhood AML survivor. And it was the first time we did a survivor event together. I'm so happy she came. The balloon release was beautiful to say the least. She did invite me out to a relay for life at a Santa Zaijian scheme. This was when she was sick. Jamie again, Jess's big sister, Alita's daughter and childhood cancer survivor.

I was, I think, 20 years old or so. And at that point in my life, I was still hiding for the most part my pride. I was still a closeted proud cancer survivor. But that moment we went out with a group of other cancer survivors and fighters and Amanda. And we stood out on the field and they gave us balloons to honor and remember those that didn't win their fight. We've released balloons out together and Amanda was right there out there with us. That was my moment of like, you know what, I'm okay. Like I'm still here.

I can be proud to be here. I still mourn the loss of my friends and you know, people that didn't make it, but I'm okay and I'm allowed to be okay. I'm allowed to be proud. And she was standing right there, not to me. Bubbly, happy, proud, strong. That balloon she held, she looked up at it and she was smiling,

she let go and she was smiling like, and I was too, with tears in my eyes, because I, you know, I was going through a lot mentally in that moment. But I looked over and lot mentally in that moment, but I looked over and we seemingly shared that moment. As Amanda kept posting on her blog, Nancy felt more and more like something really wasn't right. OK, I'm going to go in now and really peel this apart and start making some phone calls.

I was really careful in how I proceeded. I didn't just call people willy-nilly. I didn't want to reach out to anyone and tip my hand, so it took a long time before I reached out to anyone. I spoke with Corey's ex-wife, Alita. That was a conversation that I was very, very careful in how I spoke with her in asking if she was comfortable talking with me, and she absolutely was.

I sent Alita a really vague message via Etsy. I knew there was court proceedings and stuff and I said, wow, how can I go about contacting someone? Because I didn't know how elite of felt, you know, I knew that there was obviously some issues. So how did you know who elite of was? Just from researching Amanda and Corey Riley to kind of learn like,

okay, who have they lived with before? Who are their family members doing that type of research? And then approaching various people, not kind of knowing what they knew or what they, how they felt about them. And so I just kind of vaguely put it out to her like, you know, hey, I'm looking for people that know Amanda Riley. I saw that, you know, you were married to her husband and just wanted to get to know more about them. I kind of left it vague,

because, you know, I didn't know she could be best friends. It was really just to kind of get a feel for her and what she thought of them. What was it like when Muncie reached out to you? Oh, I opened the email and I said, what is this? And so I called and she was kind of vague. And I was trying to get a feel of what does she want? What is she wanting here? Because I had nothing good to say about these people. and I was trying to get a feel of what does she want, what does she want in here,

because I'd have nothing good to say about these people. So, yeah, so I told her, I'm sorry, I can't help you because they lie about everything. I can't help you, they just lie. And then, of course, the conversation just kind of went from there. What was the lead to, like, when you face boats, or what is she kind of come across, like? Oh, very upfront, very honest, and just said,

you know, I'll help you anyway. You can't, like, what is it that you're trying to find out? Because, again, I was pretty vague. It was concerning when she said, well, they lie a lot, and I knew it was an ex-wife's perspective. And that could be obviously through different lenses. We surprised when Nancy first reached out. That's producer Jackson, you can hear that.

Oh, yeah, I was really surprised. Yeah, it was kind of shocked. But I was like, what does this lady want to, you know, this is crazy. She just said, well, I have nothing, nothing nice to say. I'm sorry, I really can't help you beyond that. What did you mean, Elisa, by, well, they just lie all the time?

Well, because, you know, the custody issues with Jessa and even things that didn't have to do with Jessa, they just lied about everything. I mean, even when the truth would be okay, they would still lie. And it was just so concerning. Anything bad that can come out of it did with what they said in court and how they tried to represent how I was as a mom. Yeah, you looked at Jessa then when I asked you, is it quite hard to talk about it in front of her? Yeah, she knows a lot of it, but...

What's it like listening to your mom talk about things like that? Because you must have been how old we were when the custody case was going through. Honestly, I don't even remember that there's just been so much stuff that has happened that my memories are all just kind of jumbled together, you know what I mean? But growing up, I knew they were trying to make my mom look bad. They just really tried to tear me apart, and at one point they did. And they tried to ruin my relationship with my daughter. And I just had to sit back, and it was horrible.

It was just awful. And I just had to sit back and it was horrible. It was just awful. There was at one point though where they actually turned her against me, literally. I found a letter. It said, something about my dad told me what happened in court today. I hate Alita. Lake Shinningman referenced me as mom. They really just turned her against me.

There was nothing I felt like I can do, except for be truthful with her all the time. I kept telling myself you just have to just sit tight. Don't talk to her about any of this. You're gonna have to sit back and watch it all unravel. That's the only way that this is gonna resolve for her to see the truth anyways. Because if I was to tell her, if I was to say bad things about them or even things that were

true about them, which are a peer-bad to her, then it would come back on me, regardless. So I had to just sit back and literally watch it unravel. And oh my God, did it unravel. And when it did unravel it, unravel quickly. While Alita felt that Amanda and Corey were tearing her family apart, Amanda was giving her friends a different impression. From what I had always heard, it was the mother of her stepdaughter who was always referred to as bonus child.

It was her mother that was trying to ruin Amanda's life, and it was all because they had won custody over Jessa. And Jessa's mom was in it for the revenge, in it to drag Amanda's name through the mud and make everybody think she was a horrible liar. All I ever heard is how the ex-wife was crazy. The ex-wife was crazy. She's a terrible mom.

I just thought maybe the ex-wife really was that crazy, you know. Amanda's friends, Steven Lisa Berry, also had a front row seat to the custody drama. Amanda, she was charming. I mean, I actually thought, wow, you know, if I had an older daughter, I would like her to be Amanda. I really thought that. I mean, I was old enough to be her mother as a young mother,

but still, but I really liked how charming she was. You know, she's educated, she's going to Stanford, working on her PhD. I mean, she's quite intelligent. That's what she told me. I think it was enjoyable for us as a little bit different stage of life to have a younger couple interested

in spending time with us, right? So there's something attractive, you know, about that. And we had a commonality in daughters the same age. And they enjoyed spending time with us. That was kind of fun. I think for us, at least for me, I think as well, that, you know, someone at that stage of life would be enthusiastic about spending some time with us. There was always something she needed a lot of attention.

It was always something. It was, oh, Jess's mother's horrible. She's always going on and on about Jess's mother being horrible. There's always some kind of drama swirling around. I thought that Alita was a horrible person based on everything I heard and I called CPS because I'm hearing from Amanda about this terrible home that she's involved in. I was just horrified for this little girl. So I did call CPS and I told Amanda and Corey, after church one day, and Amanda just got this look on her face and she looked at Corey and kind of smiled.

She'd give Corey this look, she'd give it to him often. She wanted some kind of reaction out of him and that's how I saw it at the time. She was very thrilled that we had called CPS. And then she had also asked me to go to court with her to speak in court. I went twice with her. And I got there and I was really surprised how disorganized they were.

There was no need for me to speak. There was no plan for me to speak. And I didn't understand why I was there other than I looked like somebody supporting them because nobody else was there. Alita was there with a large support group. There was a big group there in court for Alita, and Amanda just had me. I had a book that my daughter was reading called Manor's Matter. It was a book that Steve's mother had given me for my daughter. Who knows how old this book was.

It wasn't a well-known book. It was a very good book. But I mentioned that my daughter was reading that book and Amanda said, oh, Jess said and I read that book. And I remember her looking at Jess said and she looked right at her and she said, we read that book, didn't we? And then Jess said, shook her head, caught on and shook her head and smiled. Yes.

And I thought, that's interesting. How'd she know about this book? It was in your mom's library for, I don't know how many years. So there were so many things, but I caught the way she looked at Jessa and Jessa seemed to know when she needed to agree with Amanda.

She called me her doppelganger mother and she said, oh you remind me so much of my mom, you look so much like my mother, you remind me so much of her. Oh your house is exactly like her house, she has the same floors as you. Even coming back from the courthouse, she said something about the duplex they were living in that they owned it. And Corey, he looked at her when she said, oh yeah, we own this house and he kind of looked over at her. And I got the feeling that he was saying, why did you say that?

There were just all these moments that I pick up these weird vibes. Despite the weird vibes. Despite the weird vibes and the age difference, Amanda and Corey became more embedded into Lisa and Steve's lives. In fact, when Amanda initially found out she was terminal, Lisa and Steve were the first to know. My birthday, which is August 24, Amanda, she was in a really bad shape. She told me she didn't know if she's going to be

able to make it to my birthday party. And I had a very big birthday party that year. It was fun. I had two bands. It was a really fun party. And I said, well, I understand. I want to come for you, little Lisa. I want to be there. I want to be there. I said, well, you know, only a few up to it. And I still remember she came, and she looks so pretty, and she's kind of standing there like she's in pain, but smiling. She stood there very in a very fragile way, and I remember looking at her and just feeling such love for her, as I'm looking at her like she dragged herself

to my birthday party. I didn't expect her to, but she did. I just looked at her like she was just so fragile and precious. She was smiling and I thought, oh, all that she's going through and she can still smile with that beautiful, sweet, innocent smile. And then Steve tells me after the party was over

that Corey was talking to him and to another friend of ours, and telling them that Amanda was really sick, she almost didn't come to the party. I remember quite distinctively that evening. We were having just a fantastic time celebrating Lisa and a good group of people were there. We broke out cigars and I was having a cigar with Corey and a couple of other guys. And we're just enjoying ourselves. It was a summer night, perfect weather and a perfect evening. And Corey and I and this other gentleman, Martin,

we're standing there together, just chatting, and then Cory got this sort of look on his face that, okay, I gotta, I need to share with him. And he said, Steve, I have to tell you, and Martin was standing right there as well. And he said, Amanda has stage four. She's progressed to stage four cancer. I'm like, oh my God.

So sorry. And he was saying that they're telling her that she doesn't have much time. It just sort of blew us away. I think both Morton and I took that news just devastatingly. You can understand why he might want to share it in a night like that when we're having a good time together and those kinds of things. Because we're with friends and he's comfortable, he's having us a guard, we're having scotch or something like that and just enjoying company.

But you know, he came out with that and it was just so startling. And looking at her, sort of thinking, oh, she looks so frail. She was walking slowly. She seemed, I can't explain it. I just remember looking at her and thinking, my God, she's like, she's like such an angel. Yeah, I felt really sad about that.

I know it was as littlest six months to live. It was really bad. I cried a lot. It was after that when she was stage four and with months to live. I had just a for the day. I think it was summertime. I think I had it for the day because Amanda was in the hospital. Can you watch, Jess, I'm in the hospital. Okay. And she says, I'll be there at such a such a said,

well, we're just going to be swimming. We'll be in the pool. We're going to be swimming. Okay. And she came over after being in the hospital. And she came in the pool. She came in the pool with me. I didn't know what she was in the hospital for, but she came in the pool. She had her hair pulled back in a ponytail, I think. And she had a little tiny round band-aid. A little one of those little tiny band-aids behind her ear.

He said, Amanda, why do you have a bandaid behind your ear? But it's small when she goes, well, I was in the hospital this morning. I was having fluid drained off my brain. And I thought, you know, first of all, you'd have a big bandage. You wouldn't have a little tiny round when it comes in a bandaid pack. You know, those little ones, I don't even know if they still make them that small. There was nobody ever used. There was always a one that was left over in the bandaid pack.

Anyway, well, she had one of those right behind her ear. And she told me that she had fluid drained off of her brain in the hospital and I'm like, brain in the hospital and I'm like, okay. And then she went underwater, swam underwater. And that's when I just was like, this is not right. This is just not right. I even talked to a friend of mine who was an oncology student at Stanford. I told her, I have to ask you something. If you have fluid drained off your brain, would you be able to swim after she said, are you kidding? I told her, would you have a little tiny bandaid like the little one? No, you'd have like a large bandage.

Would you be able to swim underwater? She's, what are you kidding me? Like seriously? No. So I knew that that was a lie. I just felt like this weird feeling like the lights went on at that moment. I just knew right then this was not right. At this point, we should probably tell you that Lisa and Steve knew Amanda before she started her blog. Everything you've just heard from them happened before the blog even started. The devastating news from Corey that Amanda only had months to live came in 2010. That's two whole years before Amanda claims she was first diagnosed on her blog. I called my friend at Stanford and I said, is it possible to find out if this girl is enrolled at Stanford?

And she goes, let me just double check. And she's like, no. Like, okay. Amanda was about to drop some big news on Lisa. Keep in mind, this was before the blog started. She's had been through all this chemotherapy, can't have kids. All of a sudden, she's dying in six months, and she's pregnant. Even though they told Lisa and Steve that she was terminally ill,

Amanda and Corey fell pregnant for the first time. This was their very first baby. The same pregnancy that Amanda told all her followers on her blog was how her cancer was discovered and diagnosed in the first place. I did not want to talk to her. I stopped answering her phone calls. Of course, her saying that she was pregnant, that was a clue in my mind as well in terms of, can you get pregnant?

I mean, I'm not a doctor, but why would you get pregnant if you're like going through chemo and going through all these treatments and those types of things? That can't be healthy, that can't be good for you or the baby. So that was quite puzzling in my mind, but I was really surprised about how quickly things were changing in Lisa's perspective. And I just knew. And I was like, Lisa, how do we know? How do you really, really know?

And I asked Lisa numerous times, how do you really, really know that she doesn't have cancer? Are she saying? I told Steve, I know she doesn't have cancer. I know she doesn't have cancer. She was calling me and I was avoiding her calls. I just was hoping she'd go away. I didn't want to have a confrontation with her. I really didn't. I just didn't want anything to do with

her or her husband and I didn't want to see them. I wanted nothing to do with them. And in fact, Steve and I went to talk to our pastor because Steve was concerned that I that maybe I was being unfair. And our pastor was, I still remember him talking to both of us and he was looking at each one of us as we were talking. He looked at me, he looked at Steve. After we were done talking, he said to Steve, you need to trust your wife. He said, I always trust my wife and she's always right.

He said, you need to trust her, her instinct. From that moment on, he did. I just thought, okay, I'm going to ignore her and she's going to just go away. She's going to get the hint and go away. I don't want to have a confrontation with this woman. I don't want to talk to her. I'm so sick. As she kept calling, she kept calling and calling. I realized, okay, I'm gonna have to just tell her. Reason why I'm not calling her back.

I wasn't gonna say anything, but I was gonna confront her with her lies. And I had a list of them down. I'd write next to the phone. So when she called me the next time I answered. I don't remember if she blurted out. She was pregnant first, or if I told her I can't be friends with you.

But she said, Oh, I have some really good news. I'm pregnant. I'm like, I thought you were dying. I thought you were dying. Oh, the pregnancy is reversing the disease. That's what she said. The pregnancy is reversing the cancer. Scamander is hosted and produced by me, Charlie Webster, and produced by Jackson MacLennan. Amanda's blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn, edit and theme music by Nico Pellele,

assistant producer Casey Hertz, assistant editor, Cima Graywall, additional production support from Steven's Latin, Wilhaegal and Nicole Urban. Executive produced by me, Charlie Webster and Nancy Moskotelo. Scamander is a Lionsgate sound production engineered by Philgrim Media Group.