A woman has been handed a 10-month suspended prison sentence after trying to gain £4,000 from a children’s cancer charity by falsely claiming that her child had relapsed.

Charlotte Blackwell, aged 41 and from Bridgend, Wales, applied for £4,000 from Morgan’s Army, a cancer charity based in Gorseinon, near Swansea. 

Blackwell pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and was sentenced on 15 August at Cardiff Crown Court to 10 months in prison, suspended for 21 months. 

She was also ordered to do 180 hours of community service, 10 days of rehabilitation activity, given a four-month nighttime curfew and ordered to pay a victim services surcharge of £187.

Natalie Ridler, who founded Morgan’s Army after her three-year-old son Morgan died last year from a rare cancer, told Third Sector Blackwell had made an application to the charity, saying her daughter had relapsed and required treatment abroad that the family was struggling to fund.

Blackwell told Ridler she needed to raise £7,000 for the treatment, saying the rest had been paid for by family and a house remortgage.

Ridler said Blackwell had passed the charity’s initial checks because her family was a “known cancer family”.

She added that all of the personal information Blackwell provided was genuine, including her real address and phone number.

The charity attempted to signpost Blackwell to various charities that assist with organising treatment abroad but she resisted working with these organisations. 

Ridler said: “This in itself isn’t unusual as many families struggle [with] accepting financial assistance and attempt to fundraise themselves initially.”

The charity told Blackwell that it could not help with the full amount but could offer a financial difficulty grant for some of it, totalling £4,000, Ridler said.

She said: “We offered advice on fundraising via a GoFundMe page and signposted to other organisations. We agreed we could make a grant via GoFundMe – this is our policy as we are protected by the donation protection guarantees.”

Ridler said that alarms were raised after Blackwell began contacting individuals and companies that had previously supported Morgan’s Army asking them to share or donate to the GoFundMe page.

“Our policy is that we do not share GoFundMe links or ask people to donate to GoFundMe via our social media,” Ridler said. “One company sent me a screenshot of a message from the individual stating that I had instructed them to message and that I said they’d donate to the cause. This is something I categorically would not do, as this is not our policy.”

Ridler discovered that Blackwell had falsified her child’s relapse after contacting another charity that the family was known to. After uncovering the fraud, Ridler contacted the police, the Charity Commission and GoFundMe, and the charity recovered all of its funds.

Ridler said: “I feel disappointed that an individual who understands the plight of the people we support could attempt to receive funds fraudulently, particularly through pretending her child had relapsed, which is a real fear for many of our families. 

“On a personal level, I feel taken advantage of. Our charity is built on honesty and we have shared our experiences really openly. I feel sick that my grief was used to groom us into helping.”

Ridler said the charity has “learned a great deal from the situation”, adding that it has updated its policies to include further verification for families applying.

“Unfortunately this does mean it’s a little tougher to access help, with more hoops for families to jump through, which I find disheartening,” she said. “Due to the mental load of having a child with a cancer diagnosis, sometimes jumping through these hoops can seem like a bit too much, and I wonder if we are now missing some families.”