This Model From India Faked Her Own Death To Raise Awareness About Cervical Cancer
While there have been many things done to promote care, treatment, and research for certain diseases like cancer, a model recently pulled a stunt that stunned the internet. Now, she’s in a whirlwind of drama.
Poonam Pandey is a model and performer. She has over 1.4 million followers on Instagram and lives in Mumbai, India.
If you haven’t heard of Poonam, you may have seen her name in recent headlines. No, she wasn’t promoting a new movie or photo shoot. She actually faked her death.
On February 2nd, posts on Poonam’s social media accounts stated that she had died of cervical cancer. Her manager, Nikita Sharma, also made posts stating the same thing, that Poonam had died of cancer and that she’d be missed by the entertainment industry.
Nikita’s post also mentioned that Poonam had an “unwavering spirit” despite her health issues, leading followers to believe she had been silently battling the illness for some time.
The internet was stunned, as the news was incredibly shocking to Poonam’s fans and followers, who had no idea she had cervical cancer in the first place.
However, they received even more shocking news the next day: she had faked it.
A day after posting she had died of cancer, Poonam’s Instagram released a statement from her directly, explaining that she had faked her own death as a way of raising awareness for cervical cancer.
Poonam later posted a video of herself apologizing to her fans, stating she apologized for hurting people but wanted to “shock” her followers and get people to have more conversations about tragic disease. She acknowledged that her actions were “extreme” but felt it was one of the only ways to get people to pay attention to the detrimental effects of cervical cancer.
moofushi – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
Later posts by Poonam revealed this stunt was done on behalf of an unnamed “campaign” she had allegedly been working on for months.
Around two weeks later, Poonam suddenly deleted all posts on her Instagram related to cervical cancer and her death stunt.
Then, she posted a simple statement, writing, “The truth shall be revealed soon.” Not long after that post, she made another statement that read, “So now that I said the truth shall be revealed, the stakeholders have got the shivers and sent us a legal notice.”
Poonam’s followers and other people who’ve watched this unfold are very confused, and many are offended, stating it was wrong of Poonam to pull such a stunt.
Some find it offensive to those who have actually lost loved ones to cancer and are confused as to how her faked death raises awareness.
As for now, many are curious as to what Poonam means by “the truth” and how her fake death will affect her career in the future.
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