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  Preacher 'Never Saw a Doctor'

By Elissa Lawrence
Adelaide Now
August 24, 2008

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24231022-5006301,00.html

MICHAEL Guglielmucci hung around in doctors' waiting rooms as part of a web of lies to convince followers that he was dying of cancer.

Family members of the fallen Christian superstar were also convinced God had healed him of some of the debilitating effects – including broken bones – of his fake battle with cancer.

Details have begun to emerge about how Mr Guglielmucci deceived those close to him. A friend of 15 years, Adelaide motivational speaker Colin Pearce, revealed his adult sons had been fooled by Mr Guglielmucci.

On a blog he posted this week, Mr Pearce said: "My twin sons were very close to Michael . . . they travelled with him when he preached. They nursed him through deep pain.

"They worked on his websites, backed him up in his quest to stay alive and supported him through thick and thin. And it was all bogus.

"He never had multiple myelomas (sic) or kidney failure or 33 broken bones or leukemia or stomach cancer.

"He never even saw a doctor. He went to hospitals and clinics but hung around the waiting rooms."

Speaking with the Sunday Mail, Mr Pearce said he believed Mr Guglielmucci had read up on the illness before telling people about the symptoms he was suffering.

"His illnesses all progressed from the chemo and his treatment," he said. "So he'd say, 'Oh, you'll never guess what's happened, it's gone to my kidneys now' or 'It's gone to my stomach'. It was always an extension of the original illness.

"These secondary illnesses can occur . . . if you read the internet and it says be careful you could develop this or that . . . I suppose he just read that."

Despite the fraud, he defended the disgraced pastor.

"He's a beautiful man with a flaw," he said. "He is just the kind of guy everyone loved. He's a big, beautiful cuddly bear who has done something really bizarre which I don't understand."

 
 

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