Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ follows the story of the incredible rise and equally shocking fall of Belle Gibson. She gains popularity through her story of beating terminal cancer completely through dietary changes and other unconventional methods. She is projected as a young mother, a cancer survivor, and a builder of a wellness brand that rakes in millions through her app and book deal and whatnot. However, all of this comes crashing down when the truth about her lies comes to light. Her journey is mirrored, in some ways, by another young woman named Milla Blake. The difference is that she actually has cancer and is following a strict dietary regimen to keep herself healthy. Her journey in the show seems to reflect the real story of a wellness blogger who amassed a dedicated following through her wellness blog.
Milla Blake’s Journey Closely Resembles a Real Wellness Blogger’s
Milla Blake in ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ seems to be a fictionalized version of Jess Ainscough, the creator of a wellness blog named the Wellness Warrior. Born to Col and Sharyn Ainscough, Jess was twenty-two when she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called epithelioid sarcoma. According to the doctors, her best option was to have her arm amputated. This would give her a ten-year survival chance. However, they also clarified that the cancer would most probably return in some other form in some other part of her body. At first, an intense form of chemotherapy was used to treat her, but when it stopped working, amputation remained the only option. However, Jess decided not to go through with it and focused on alternative forms of treatment, eventually ending up with the Gerson therapy.
Jess went through a two-year course with Gerson therapy, which put her on a strict dietary regimen, which was completely organic and vegetarian in nature, including daily coffee enemas. When she ended the course, she opted to stay on a modified version of the diet, which was less intense but still followed the same skeleton of the original. Alongside this, Jess started to document her story about fighting cancer through unconventional methods. She started with a blog called The Wellness Warrior and then moved on to writing books. She wrote three e-books, the last of which, ‘Make Peace With Your Plate,’ was taken up by a prominent publisher.
Her story attracted the attention of thousands of people and she amassed a loyal following. By this time, Jess had left her full-time job as a magazine writer. Prior to her cancer diagnosis, she worked for the Dolly magazine. Before that, she’d worked as an editorial assistant and social reporter for Nine to Five and City Weekly. Additionally, she had also written for prominent magazines like Cosmopolitan, Girlfriend, and Cleo, among others. As her blog took off, Jess decided to become a professional health coach and studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to get her degree.
Additionally, she worked on creating a 12-step program called The Wellness Warrior Lifestyle Transformation Guide, which would give people the resources to lead a healthier lifestyle. Apart from this, she loved connecting with more people working in the health and wellness field, reaching out to and helping other people struggling with cancer, and spending time with her loved ones, especially her pet dog, Ziggy.
Jess Ainscough’s Death was Preceded by Her Mother’s
While she was told that amputation was the only way to save her life, Jess stuck with Gerson therapy to keep herself going. She was so influenced by it that when her mother, Sharyn, was diagnosed with breast cancer, she too decided to go down Jess’ path rather than go forward with the options provided by conventional medicine. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out so well for her, and she passed away in 2013. Her mother’s death hit Jess pretty hard, and shortly after, she revealed on her blog that her cancer had returned.
Jess confessed that she was pretty unwell, and since the news of her mother’s cancer, her own health had started to suffer, too. It got worse following Sharyn’s passing, and despite all her efforts, Jess didn’t feel any better. She revealed that she had been bedridden for several months by that point. It was later revealed that things had started to get worse with the tumor in her left shoulder, which made everything extremely painful for her. The pain interfered so much that she couldn’t go about her daily life. Eventually, she decided to go with conventional medicine and received radiation treatment.
Her fiancé, Tallon Pamenter (whom Jess was supposed to marry in 2015), revealed that this was a risky decision for her and not something she took lightly. However, she also knew that this was the last attempt to make things better if possible. At first, the radiation treatment seemed to work, and the tumor was shrunk. However, in its final stages, some complications came up, and there was no way around them. Jess passed away on February 26, 2015, at the age of 30, seven years after she was diagnosed with cancer.
Jess Ainscough Crossed Paths With Belle Gibson Before The Whole Pantry
In telling the story of Belle Gibson, ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ takes some creative liberties. It intertwines her story with Milla Blake’s, such that the two women become the face of the wellness industry in very conflicting ways. In real life, Jess Ainscough’s journey wasn’t really connected to Belle Gibson’s, however, the latter reportedly did try to find ways to form a connection with the former. In ‘The Woman Who Fooled the World,’ journalists Beau Donelly and Nick Toscano have written about Belle’s obsession with Jess, her wellness blog, and the success she found through it. Through the accounts of various people who knew Jess and crossed paths with Belle Gibson, it came to light that Belle may have gotten the idea of building a wellness empire of her own after seeing Jess flourish in hers. The part where Belle meets Milla at her book event for the first time is also borrowed from the real interaction that Jess had with her.
One of the more infuriating moments about Belle in the show comes during Milla’s funeral, which she attends and cries at as if she and Milla were the best of friends. Reportedly, the real Belle Gibson pulled a similar stunt at Jess Ainscough’s funeral, where she even met with the late blogger’s fiancé privately to cry on his shoulder. The show has borrowed this incident, among others, to give us a glimpse into Belle’s psyche. Still, there are some things that have been fictionalized, for example, increasing the drama and rivalry between the women. The show also adds an angle of friendship between Milla and Chanelle to make things more personal for the latter as she decides to bring down Belle by exposing her. In real life, however, Jess and Chanelle did not have any such relationship. With these fictional touches, ‘Apple Cider Vinegar’ seems to present a version of Jess Ainscough’s story through the fictitious lens of Milla Blake’s perspective.
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