Angela | Betrayal Weekly

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Speaker 26 Hi, everyone. Before we get into this episode, I want to let you know that the first part discusses details of cancer symptoms and treatment.
Please listen with care.

Speaker 27 She's ruined so many lives. She's just broken so many hearts.
It's just left me wondering: did she ever

Speaker 27 have any love for any of us?

Speaker 27 And that hurts like hell.

Speaker 26 I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal, a show about the people we trust the most and the deceptions that change everything.

Speaker 27 Oh, it's a tale of Peter Rabbit. That is, and I can see you've drawn a picture of me, Peter Rabbit.
That is Adler.

Speaker 26 That's Angela McVicker. She's a grandmother in small-town Scotland.
The day we interviewed her, Angela was babysitting her four-year-old granddaughter.

Speaker 27 Listen, Nana's going to ask if you will be quiet for a little while longer. Okay.

Speaker 27 Okay.

Speaker 27 Be very, very good. And you'll make me very, very happy.

Speaker 27 Okay.

Speaker 20 Right, on you go.

Speaker 26 Angela has lived her whole life in the Scottish countryside.

Speaker 27 What makes Scotland, I think, are the people.

Speaker 27 If a stranger walks into a bar, they don't leave that bar until everybody knows who they are and why they're there.

Speaker 26 She came from a close-knit family of all girls.

Speaker 27 When she was growing up in the 70s, I did actually want to be a midwife, but then I fell pregnant and had my first daughter, Joanna, when I was 17. So that kind of put a hold on anything.

Speaker 27 And at that point, I was thrown into growing up very quickly.

Speaker 26 Joanna was named for Angela's father, John. And just like her mom, she would be one of four girls.

Speaker 27 Which Which was hard going being a young mom and having four children.

Speaker 26 There was rarely a quiet moment.

Speaker 27 We always had a busy house with four girls that were always bringing friends home.

Speaker 26 Out of all of her girls, Joanna was the most driven.

Speaker 27 You never had to tell her to

Speaker 27 study. She would come home and go straight to her room.
do her homework.

Speaker 26 And she was a talented Highland dancer, which is a traditional Gaelic folk dance. On weekends, Joanna competed in dance contests across the country.

Speaker 26 But something changed when Joanna was 16.

Speaker 27 Joanna started to get really tired, and I put it down to her studying so hard for her exams.

Speaker 27 And then

Speaker 27 she started getting little lumps and bruises.

Speaker 27 She would come and say, Mom, look at this. And then one time in particular,

Speaker 27 she couldn't get her shoe on and she said, look at my foot. And on the bridge of her foot, there was a lump and it looked like an egg.
It was really quite a significant lump.

Speaker 26 Angela wasn't the type to call the doctor over every scrape or sniffle. But this time, she was genuinely alarmed.
When the first doctor dismissed it as a bug bite, she found another doctor.

Speaker 26 And then another.

Speaker 27 I knew in the back of my mind it wasn't right. There was something going on.

Speaker 26 One day, Joanna came home from school with a large dark purple bruise. It covered her whole lower leg.

Speaker 27 And it hadn't been there in the morning when she left.

Speaker 27 And at that point,

Speaker 27 leukemia hit me between the eyes.

Speaker 27 I knew that bruising was a symptom.

Speaker 27 So we went to the hospital the following day and they said well we need to do a bone marrow aspirate but they told me that it was just to confirm what they already knew and I just I kept having to leave her room.

Speaker 27 I kept having to make up excuses

Speaker 27 because I could feel myself getting panicked and upset and I didn't want her to feel that or see it.

Speaker 26 It was a day that changed their lives forever. At 16,

Speaker 26 Joanna was diagnosed with cancer.

Speaker 27 Just by looking through a microscope, we could tell that she had chronic myeloid leukemia.

Speaker 26 Today, there are a variety of treatments for chronic myeloid leukemia, but 30 years ago, there were very limited options. Joanna's doctors were scrambling to find answers.

Speaker 27 The doctors would say, I don't know how she's functioning. I don't know how she can walk.

Speaker 26 A nurse had seen Angela pacing the hallways all day. She pulled her aside and gave her some stern advice.
Angela was going to have to be her daughter's advocate.

Speaker 27 She wasn't giving me tea and sympathy. She was giving me sound advice.

Speaker 27 And she was being a bit of a badass with me and just telling me without saying the words, pull yourself together, you're going to have to do this.

Speaker 26 So Angela tried to channel her fear into action.

Speaker 26 She was willing to go anywhere in the world, do anything necessary to get Joanna treatment.

Speaker 26 Next, she found a specialist.

Speaker 27 He then told us that she had to have a bone marrow transplant to survive.

Speaker 26 In order to have a successful bone marrow transplant, Joanna would need a perfect match. It's rare, but they found a possible match on the national registry.

Speaker 26 It wasn't perfect, but it was close. And it was their only shot.
But the procedure is dangerous.

Speaker 27 So what they do is they kill off all your bone marrow. So you have to go into isolation.

Speaker 27 You're in a room where everybody has to be scrubbed up and it's very limited to how many people are in the room because an infection could kill you because you don't have any white cells to fight infection.

Speaker 27 And then

Speaker 27 the cells from a donor just look like a bag of blood and it's hung up on a stand and you receive it through intravenous.

Speaker 27 And the stem cells that go through your veins find their way to your bone marrow and they nest in your bone marrow and start to multiply and give you a new immune system, should your body accept it.

Speaker 27 but Joanna's didn't

Speaker 27 it wasn't a close enough match and her body attacked the new cells

Speaker 27 when

Speaker 27 that happened she was left with no immune system and no donor

Speaker 26 Before the transplant, Joanna didn't fully grasp how serious her diagnosis was.

Speaker 27 There's a few times we thought we were going to lose her during the transplant. She was just so ill.

Speaker 26 After the transplant failed, Joanna's doctors were blunt.

Speaker 27 So at that point, they said, if she's going to survive beyond five years, we need to find a perfect match.

Speaker 26 That's when Angela turned to the Anthony Nolan Register, one of the first bone marrow registries in the world.

Speaker 26 It had been founded by another mother, also desperate to save her child. And the charity happened to be based in the UK.
So Angela scheduled a meeting with a woman there.

Speaker 27 And she said, well, this weekend, we have got a fundraising event going on in Glasgow. Would you and Joanna like to go along? And I said, yes.
because we have to do something.

Speaker 27 We can't sit back and just expect everybody else to build this register for us.

Speaker 26 So they packed their bags for Glasgow.

Speaker 27 Of course, Joanna said she had nothing to wear, which was a lot of baloney.

Speaker 26 That weekend, they hoped to meet people who could help Joanna.

Speaker 27 And that's where I met Lindsay McCallum.

Speaker 26 Lindsay worked for the Anthony Nolan Trust. And she would be Angela and Joanna's ambassador, guiding them through the process of growing the registry and trying to find Joanna's match.

Speaker 27 When we arrived at the hotel, she greeted us so warmly and kindly, and she was very caring and inviting.

Speaker 27 That night at the fundraiser, there was an auction, and there was people up speaking. And while Lindsay was speaking on the stage,

Speaker 27 Joanna actually got up off her chair and walked up onto the stage

Speaker 27 and took the mic and told people

Speaker 27 that

Speaker 27 she needed to find a bone marrow match or she was going to die.

Speaker 27 I saw her blossom on that stage.

Speaker 27 She didn't cry. She just told people that she wanted to live.
and thanked them for being there and for helping her.

Speaker 26 In that moment, something shifted. Joanna was no longer just a patient, she wanted to be an advocate.
And an idea was born.

Speaker 26 The Anthony Nolan Trust would partner with Joanna to launch a media campaign. They would use her story to raise awareness and get new people to donate bone marrow.

Speaker 26 Every new donor could potentially be Joanna's match.

Speaker 26 They got the campaign off the ground with Lindsay's help, and the public immediately took notice.

Speaker 27 When we started Joanna's campaign, the media just ate it up. They just loved her.
She loved the camera. The camera loved her.

Speaker 27 Yeah, she made friends with lots of different Scottish celebrities and

Speaker 27 they just loved her zest for life.

Speaker 26 Joanna's story struck a chord. Her personality, her humor, her sheer will to live, it was irresistible.
Plus, the campaign gave Joanna a larger purpose.

Speaker 27 It sounds ridiculous, but she had a blast.

Speaker 27 She just wanted to live. That was a message.
I just want to live.

Speaker 26 Even though the transplant hadn't been successful, Joanna was well enough to take her exams and get into college. There, she discovered her love of journalism.

Speaker 27 She used to say, when I'm better, I'm going to start a newspaper and it's going to be called good news only.

Speaker 27 It's going to just be a newspaper full of good news that people will want to read and not

Speaker 27 be drawn into doom and gloom.

Speaker 27 Wouldn't that be a wonderful word?

Speaker 26 As the campaign continued to grow, so did Angela's involvement.

Speaker 27 I

Speaker 27 started to work. for the Anthony Nolan Trust.
I was a donor recruitment manager. I then started running clinics where people could come along and put their name down to be on the register.

Speaker 27 And everybody was coming to join the register, coming in their thousands.

Speaker 26 It was intense work. And Angela says it couldn't have been accomplished without Lindsay's help.
The woman they met at the fundraiser was becoming an integral part of their lives.

Speaker 26 Lindsay went above and beyond on Joanna's campaign, and she meant business.

Speaker 27 She was ex-military, had been in the Navy, and so she had that kind of great organizational skills. And

Speaker 27 she was charming. She attracted people.
She was a good fundraiser.

Speaker 27 Because we were running a campaign together, the relationship became pretty intense.

Speaker 26 Lindsay and Angela became fast friends.

Speaker 27 You know, the relationship grew organically.

Speaker 27 She would phone me during our work hours and then that would expand

Speaker 27 and we wouldn't just talk.

Speaker 27 We just kicked off. We just kicked off really well and we laughed at the same things.
We talked about the same things. We

Speaker 27 both had families that were very similar, very close, loving. families.

Speaker 26 They had a lot in common and Lindsay made her feel less alone lindsay didn't have a child with cancer or a personal stake in growing the donor registry but she was passionate about the work and the people she was helping she just had

Speaker 27 an aura

Speaker 27 and

Speaker 27 we both had a common goal in increasing the register and helping people and she cared about Joanna.

Speaker 26 As the year went on, Lindsay became a part of their family.

Speaker 27 Our families quickly became intertwined. I absolutely adored her mother and her sisters.

Speaker 26 Lindsay and Angela started calling each other first thing in the morning, every morning.

Speaker 27 We were both early birds. Either she would text me or I would text her saying, are you awake yet?

Speaker 27 And I don't know what we even spoke about. You know, when you have a relationship and you can be in the phone for an hour and then you have to phone back in an hour's time? Oh, I forgot to tell you.

Speaker 27 I could speak to her five times a day.

Speaker 27 That was the kind of relationship we had.

Speaker 27 You didn't get one without the other. It was like cheese and pickle.

Speaker 26 The two women founded an annual ball together as a fundraiser for the registry. By that point, Lindsay felt like a sister.

Speaker 27 It's hard to describe just how intense a friendship it was i feel it was always because we had

Speaker 27 that goal to save joanna's life joanna herself was determined to live and she was open to trying anything she spoke to doctors about complementary therapies should she have reflexology should she have massage And 30 years ago, doctors scoffed and rolled their eyes and said, yeah, you could try that if you like.

Speaker 26 But Joanna was ahead of her time. She believed in Western medicine, and she also believed in the power of rest, food, and joy.

Speaker 26 While they kept waiting for the perfect match, Joanna decided the best treatment would be living her life to the fullest.

Speaker 27 She was gutsy.

Speaker 27 She would do things like skydive.

Speaker 27 She went scuba diving.

Speaker 26 She'd been living with cancer for almost 10 years. When she was 24, she planned to backpack around the world.
Her doctors cleared her to go so long as she had blood work done every few weeks.

Speaker 26 And Joanna took the chance.

Speaker 27 She went all over. She was in Thailand, all these kinds of places, Fiji.

Speaker 27 I mean, bear in mind, Joanna was tiny, tiny, little thin thing. Her backpack was almost as big as her.
It was huge. And while she was

Speaker 27 in Australia

Speaker 27 I got a phone call to say she had been admitted.

Speaker 26 She started feeling short of breath and it turned out she had a collapsed lung.

Speaker 27 Her lungs are deteriorating. Eventually they managed to get her on a flight and get her back

Speaker 27 to

Speaker 27 Scotland and then we discovered that she actually needed a heart and lung transplant.

Speaker 26 Everyone knew what it meant. This was the beginning of the end.

Speaker 27 And she never ever got that

Speaker 27 heart and lung transplant.

Speaker 26 Joanna died at home with her mom and sisters by her side.

Speaker 26 She was 27.

Speaker 27 It was just all so unfair.

Speaker 27 Everything's unfair, though, isn't it?

Speaker 27 You know, with disease, it's never fair.

Speaker 27 But she just so desperately wanted to live.

Speaker 26 Angela immediately threw herself into planning a celebration of life for Joanna.

Speaker 27 I remember saying to somebody, this is the last thing I get to do for my child.

Speaker 26 The service would be joyful and vibrant, just like Joanna.

Speaker 27 We asked

Speaker 27 everybody not to wear black, to wear very colorful clothing.

Speaker 27 From a tiny little girl Joanna

Speaker 27 loved rainbows. As a toddler she would scream when she saw a rainbow.
She was fascinated and

Speaker 27 when

Speaker 27 she

Speaker 27 was very ill and she knew she was dying

Speaker 27 She said to me,

Speaker 27 when we can no longer be together

Speaker 27 I will send you a sign and we can meet in the middle of rainbow.

Speaker 26 As they planned the service, Lindsay was there to help, just like always.

Speaker 27 Lindsay actually asked if she could read her a eulogy. I was like, oh my goodness,

Speaker 26 could you do that?

Speaker 27 And she was like, I really, yeah, I could. I want to.

Speaker 27 And I was like, oh,

Speaker 27 that's beautiful.

Speaker 26 Even in this dark time, Angela felt like she was surrounded by love, that she was supported by good and caring people.

Speaker 27 I thought Lindsay McCarthum was one of these people.

Speaker 27 And she wasn't.

Speaker 28 Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.

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Speaker 26 After Joanna passed away, Angela leaned on her family and friends, especially her best friend Lindsay. At this point, they'd been best friends for nearly a decade.

Speaker 26 Their daily morning calls became a lifeline for Angela.

Speaker 27 After Joanna passed,

Speaker 27 you know, Lindsay would be the first person

Speaker 27 I would speak to in the morning

Speaker 27 and she would message me and say, Ayu up or I would, if I was awake, I would message a yup and we would chat and

Speaker 27 she would just

Speaker 27 laugh with me about the funny things Joanna would get up to and the funny things that she would say

Speaker 27 and

Speaker 27 it lifted my spirits and it was just she was always there. She was so supportive.

Speaker 27 Never heard her cry enough. Never cried.
But I just thought that she was just composed.

Speaker 26 Their friendship went on like this for another seven years. During this time, Angela was reflecting a lot on Joanna and how she was always looking for holistic treatments.

Speaker 26 ways to make herself feel better and find joy.

Speaker 27 She thought about how Joanna used to say, there should be a place that people go and they can just sample all these things and

Speaker 27 find out what you can do to bring more joy, more peace, more relaxation, less stress.

Speaker 26 One day, when Lindsay and Angela were on the phone, they came up with an idea together, a charity that would provide exactly that.

Speaker 27 Seven years after Joanna passed away,

Speaker 27 Lindsay and I decided, in her memory, to launch Rainbow Valley

Speaker 27 to help other people.

Speaker 26 Rainbow Valley. A nod to Joanna's vibrancy and her love of rainbows.
They would offer a two-day residential program for people with cancer.

Speaker 26 The course would include coaching on mindfulness, diet, and emotional well-being.

Speaker 27 Rainbow Valley is not a life-saving charity. Removale is a life-changing charity and it doesn't matter how long you have

Speaker 27 to live.

Speaker 27 It's what can you do to take back control of a diagnosis of cancer

Speaker 27 and live a more joyous life.

Speaker 26 Luckily, Lindsay knew how to start a charity and she was eager to help.

Speaker 27 She had 17, 18 years experience as a fundraiser for a big organisation.

Speaker 27 So she was obviously well respected within the sector. And I felt she had the expertise.

Speaker 27 Joanna gave us the vision, Joanna gave us our mission. I was a storyteller.
And

Speaker 27 Lindsay was the expertise behind pulling it together.

Speaker 26 They applied for charitable status and found experts to lead their courses. And then in a twist of fate, Lindsay was laid off from her job at the Anthony Nolan Trust.

Speaker 26 So she became Rainbow Valley's first official employee.

Speaker 27 It made sense that Lindsay,

Speaker 27 you know, after being made redundant,

Speaker 1 worked.

Speaker 27 for Rainbow Valley and we

Speaker 27 pulled a board together, a board of trustees, and we took advice from Lindsay. We took her lead because she was the one with 20 years' experience.

Speaker 27 I was so grateful that we were able to do something like this together in Joanna's memory.

Speaker 27 I thought it was all meant to be.

Speaker 26 Under Lindsay's leadership, the charity really came together. In 2012, Rainbow Valley officially began running courses.

Speaker 27 She was the head of the charity. She was involved in the day-to-day running of everything.

Speaker 27 I

Speaker 27 trusted her implicitly.

Speaker 27 Implicitly.

Speaker 26 A few years into managing the charity together, the friends faced their first real conflict. Angela had started to question some of Lindsay's choices.

Speaker 27 I felt she was spending money on something that wasn't necessary

Speaker 27 and it was a bit of a waste of resources. And I spoke to Lindsay about this.

Speaker 27 And I remember saying to her, this is extremely difficult for me

Speaker 27 because

Speaker 27 you're my best friend and

Speaker 27 I adore you. But this is a business conversation and

Speaker 27 I don't feel this is

Speaker 27 the way

Speaker 27 we should be running.

Speaker 26 And Lindsay didn't take it well.

Speaker 27 It was the first time I had ever seen.

Speaker 27 I don't want to over-exaggerate and say aggression,

Speaker 27 but it was like she was angry. I saw it as not a fallout, but we disagreed on something, which we hadn't done before.

Speaker 26 But it was more than a disagreement. It was a turning point.
After that conversation, Lindsay became cold and she came to Angela with some feedback of her own.

Speaker 27 She started telling me that people didn't like me and that I was causing upset on the course. I was upsetting the staff and I was upsetting the attendees and I was creating a negative atmosphere

Speaker 27 and of course I loved her and I didn't want to upset her. I didn't want to upset anybody on the course

Speaker 27 but she had me convinced that

Speaker 27 I was

Speaker 27 creating this negative atmosphere.

Speaker 26 Angela was taken aback but she trusted Lindsay's judgment. She didn't want to be a problem or get in the way of their mission.

Speaker 27 And she told me that I shouldn't come to the courses anymore, that I wasn't being

Speaker 27 useful,

Speaker 27 so

Speaker 27 I kind of stepped back from that.

Speaker 26 She wanted to do what was best for the charity, but Angela was hurt. And to make matters worse, their friendship was changing.

Speaker 27 During that time,

Speaker 27 our

Speaker 27 relationship

Speaker 27 really deteriorated and I was very confused, you know, because Lindsay would turn quite nasty at times and it just wasn't like her. You know, I would try to speak to her and say, what's wrong?

Speaker 27 And she'd say nothing, nothing.

Speaker 27 So she had me feeling I was imagining it.

Speaker 26 Lindsay stopped calling in the mornings.

Speaker 27 I would then be phoning her and she would ignore my calls. And then when I would say to you, I phoned you, she would say, well, I've never gotten a missed call from you.

Speaker 26 Then, one night, Angela opened her door to find all three of her daughters standing in front of her.

Speaker 27 The girls all came to my house one evening and said,

Speaker 27 You really need to get help.

Speaker 27 You're not happy.

Speaker 26 Angela knew Lindsay had something to do with this, and her daughters confirmed it. Lindsay had approached them and raised her concerns.

Speaker 27 She was saying to them things like, Your mom really needs help.

Speaker 27 I know she's had a lot of trauma in her life, but she really needs help.

Speaker 27 And that I was going off my nut.

Speaker 27 And I was like,

Speaker 27 absolutely not.

Speaker 26 Now Lindsay was interfering in her relationship with her daughters. It started to feel like it was orchestrated.

Speaker 27 But to what end?

Speaker 26 Angela couldn't figure it out.

Speaker 27 And on top of that, I felt she was pushing me out,

Speaker 27 telling me that I was interfering in the day-to-day running of the charity and that she ran the charity.

Speaker 26 But one day, Angela stopped by a Rainbow Valley course that Lindsay was running.

Speaker 26 She stood in the back and kept to herself. Lindsay was giving the introduction to the group.
Typically, they shared Joanna's story at the start of every course.

Speaker 26 But this time Lindsay skipped over it.

Speaker 27 I remember going to a day course

Speaker 27 and normally when we have our intro slides we talk about what Rainbow Valley is, the inspiration and we have a picture of Joanna up and we talk about this is where it started.

Speaker 27 This was a dream of Joanna's,

Speaker 27 but this time she didn't mention Joanna in the course.

Speaker 27 I said to her after it,

Speaker 27 was there a reason why you stopped talking about Joanna?

Speaker 27 And she said, Because I don't really think it's relevant.

Speaker 26 Angela was at a loss for words. She didn't recognize Lindsay or where she was taking Rainbow Valley.

Speaker 27 And then

Speaker 27 in 2022,

Speaker 27 January,

Speaker 27 she said to me,

Speaker 27 there's a problem.

Speaker 26 Lindsay said COVID had taken a toll on the charity's bottom line.

Speaker 27 And she said, we've managed to bob along because we got some grants to run the online courses, but now we're through all that and it's not viable. We don't have enough money.

Speaker 27 The charity is going to close.

Speaker 27 She announced this at a board meeting

Speaker 27 and

Speaker 27 they all kind of looked at the figures and were like,

Speaker 27 we're in trouble here.

Speaker 26 It was bleak. Lindsay explained that the best option was to wind down the charity at the end of the year.

Speaker 27 I said, wait a wee moment.

Speaker 27 We cannot make this decision and walk out of the room saying that's it, we're folding.

Speaker 27 Give us three weeks. Let's reconvene in three weeks.

Speaker 27 And if we all all go away and speak to everybody and anybody and see if we can find a company, a trust fund, somebody that will save us, somebody that will give us a big donation.

Speaker 26 Angela started working the phones. Within a week, someone found a donor willing to help get Rainbow Valley back on track.

Speaker 27 I was so relieved and so excited.

Speaker 27 I met Lindsay

Speaker 27 before the board meeting and I thought she would have been

Speaker 27 elated,

Speaker 27 but she was like,

Speaker 27 oh, that's great.

Speaker 26 Instead of celebrating, Lindsay announced that she would be stepping down from the charity for good.

Speaker 27 She said, I'm leaving Rainbow Valley. I don't want to do fundraising anymore.

Speaker 27 I'm going to resign.

Speaker 26 On her last day, the staff took her out to lunch and bought her flowers. She and Angela said a cordial goodbye.
Angela felt like it was a new chapter for the charity.

Speaker 26 The only thing left to do was close the accounts Lindsay used.

Speaker 26 Years ago, she set up a separate bank account for their annual gala. Angela knew about the account, but she wasn't involved in managing it.

Speaker 27 I had mentioned this other account that was for the ball, which Lindsay had advised that we set up as a friends account.

Speaker 27 I knew that she had done this when she was with the Anthony Nolan Trust previously.

Speaker 27 So I just thought, well, that's how it's done.

Speaker 26 The bank account Lindsay set up was called The Friends of Rainbow Valley.

Speaker 27 And the

Speaker 27 treasurer said, oh,

Speaker 27 that account.

Speaker 27 Is it closed? And I was like, well, I don't know. And she said, well, it needs closed or the name changed.

Speaker 26 So, Angela went to the bank and got hard copies of the account statements to take back to the office and reconcile.

Speaker 26 Angela's adult daughter, Kendall, was working for Rainbow Valley at the time, helping close out the books for the end of the year.

Speaker 27 I took it back to the office, put it down on the table, and I said to Kendall, let's go through this. And

Speaker 27 Kendall continued looking through it. And she said, Mum, come back and look at this.

Speaker 27 Why is all this getting paid out to Lindsay? Why? Why is all these payments going out to Lindsay?

Speaker 26 Angela went to look and she saw dozens of transfers, small transfers, a few hundred dollars each. But the closer they looked, they realized it quickly totaled a huge sum of money.

Speaker 26 And it was all made out to one person:

Speaker 26 Lindsay McCallum.

Speaker 28 Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.

Speaker 4 Where did that story come from?

Speaker 27 Book?

Speaker 29 Dream?

Speaker 2 Nope, it came from a conversation.

Speaker 7 Meet Miko Mini Plus, the AI companion that co-creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time.

Speaker 30 What color was the hamster's cape? And what did he pack for lunch?

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Speaker 9 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 12 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 13 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 15 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 16 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 22 Learn more at don't sleep on osa.com.

Speaker 13 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

Speaker 1 Did a GLP-1 help you lose weight, but now you're noticing unwanted facial changes? The weight came off, but facial volume loss and dull sagging skin are making you look older.

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Speaker 26 As Angela and her daughter, Kendall were going through the end-of-year finances for Rainbow Valley, they found something alarming.

Speaker 26 Dozens of payments to Lindsay from a bank account that only she used.

Speaker 27 And she said, why is all this getting paid out to Lindsay? And I said, it'll be expenses.

Speaker 27 And she said, no, look at the dates.

Speaker 27 Why would she have expenses March, April, May, June? It's every month and sometimes it's twice a day. was really confused, and Kendall just looked at me and I was like, no, she's been horrible to me.

Speaker 27 But she's not a thief. I know that our family are very wealthy.
She's very comfortable. And she's not a thief.

Speaker 27 No,

Speaker 27 not a chance.

Speaker 26 It's true that Lindsay's husband came from a wealthy family and she'd been collecting a salary from Rainbow Valley.

Speaker 27 She didn't need money.

Speaker 26 Angela felt like there had to be another explanation. so she reached out to Lindsay to clear it up.

Speaker 27 I had sent in a message saying, I'm confused why all these payments are going out to you

Speaker 27 and are they expenses? And the amounts don't add up.

Speaker 27 She says it was expenses, I was just paying things in drips and drabs, and I wanted to believe that.

Speaker 27 And I came back into the office and I said to Kendall, It's fine, it's just expenses.

Speaker 27 And Kendall said,

Speaker 27 Bullshit.

Speaker 27 Bullshit.

Speaker 27 She says, Open your eyes and look at it properly.

Speaker 26 She needed answers, so she called Lindsay back.

Speaker 27 And

Speaker 27 she was just coming up with, you know, lots of different excuses.

Speaker 27 And then she said, Well, I should have told you this, but a good few years ago, Rainbow Valley was in financial trouble and I put a lump sum in to dig us out a hole and I should have told you about it.

Speaker 27 And I said, how much? How much did you put in?

Speaker 27 And she said, oh, I can't remember. But that was me trying to claw the money back.

Speaker 27 And I said, no. I say, that's not transparent.
You cannot do that.

Speaker 27 Bring in all your statements, bring in all your bank accounts, and you and I will sit at this table and we will go through everything and we'll make everything transparent so that every penny is accounted for.

Speaker 27 And she said,

Speaker 27 I can't.

Speaker 26 So Angela ended the call. She needed time to think.

Speaker 27 And at that point, you know,

Speaker 27 I'm disgusted.

Speaker 27 We packed up and we drove home. And the whole way home, my head was just spinning.

Speaker 27 And I said to my daughter, just let's keep this low-key just now because

Speaker 27 I need to work out what my next steps are.

Speaker 26 Before she could wrap her head around this, Lindsay called again,

Speaker 26 this time with a new tactic.

Speaker 27 She phoned and she said, please, Angela, don't take this any further. And she said, look,

Speaker 27 I'll give you

Speaker 27 Just go to the bank and close it.

Speaker 27 And I said, How long has this been going on? And she said, Oh, no, no, no, it was just that year. It was just that one year.
That was it.

Speaker 27 That was it. You know, it was okay.
It's okay. There's nothing else.

Speaker 26 Angela didn't believe her.

Speaker 27 As far as I was concerned, she was trying to bribe me.

Speaker 26 This wasn't sloppy bookkeeping, it was theft.

Speaker 27 So then I phoned my daughter and I said,

Speaker 27 we're going to the police.

Speaker 27 I had to go to the police.

Speaker 26 They wanted to gather all the evidence they could, so they searched every page of their financial records, starting with the year the charity was founded.

Speaker 27 And my two daughters went through it highlighting everything and kind of trying to get a tally. I could hardly chew my own fingernails.
I was in such a state.

Speaker 26 The bank statements revealed Lindsay had been stealing money from Rainbow Valley for years.

Speaker 26 She had taken it bit by bit. 300 here, 200 there.

Speaker 26 And slowly, those little numbers started adding up. In the end, they discovered Lindsay stole 86,000 pounds.
That's 116,000 US dollars.

Speaker 26 The reason nobody had noticed was because Lindsay was soliciting donations straight to the Friends of Rainbow Valley account.

Speaker 26 And she never reported those donations to the organization. So, of course, the donors thought their money was going to the charity.

Speaker 26 In reality, it was going to Lindsay's slush fund.

Speaker 27 Nobody else would know that thousand pounds ever existed

Speaker 27 because she would be the one that would be writing a letter of thanks.

Speaker 27 So, she was so deceitful. And these are people, this is money from people that she would know.

Speaker 26 Lindsay had robbed their their donors. She'd robbed cancer patients and their families.
She'd even tried to close Rainbow Valley forever.

Speaker 27 It was like a jigsaw all coming together.

Speaker 27 It was making sense why she was treating me the way she was, why she had to get rid of me, why she wanted to leave Rainbow Valley. Why she was gaslighting me.

Speaker 27 She had hoped that the charity would fold and all all the bank accounts would be closed and it would be all gone and she would have got away with it.

Speaker 26 Angela realized her best friend of 20 years wasn't the person she thought she was.

Speaker 27 When it all came to light,

Speaker 27 I was breathed.

Speaker 27 The person

Speaker 27 I thought she was for me had died.

Speaker 27 She no longer existed.

Speaker 27 And

Speaker 27 that was extremely difficult and intense.

Speaker 26 Angela walked into the police station with hundreds of papers in hand.

Speaker 27 And I have to say, the detective was so good because I was on there. I was just a wreck when he would come in.
You know, I was just a blubbering wreck.

Speaker 27 And he was just very calm and kind and explained everything as he was going along. And he warned me, he said, this will take about two years to get to court.
And I was like, no way, how can that be?

Speaker 26 He was right. It took the police a year to investigate the case.
A week after Angela confronted her, Lindsay paid £25,000 into the Rainbow Valley account in an attempt to cover up what she'd done.

Speaker 26 She didn't know that Angela had already gone to the police.

Speaker 27 So she thought she had got away with it.

Speaker 27 You know, time was passing and she was

Speaker 27 living her best life. Their son was getting married.
They went away to Cyprus for this big laughish wedding,

Speaker 27 as if there was nothing wrong.

Speaker 26 For Angela, the year of the investigation was an emotional and unsettling time. Sometimes, she had to remind herself that this was really happening.

Speaker 27 I would get into a panic sometimes and think, oh my god, have we got this wrong? And I would have to go back into the office and take out all the evidence and look at it

Speaker 27 to remind me

Speaker 27 and say, no, it really happened. It really has happened.

Speaker 26 On October 30th, 2023, it got very real for Angela and for Lindsay.

Speaker 27 I remember the day she was arrested. I'll never forget it as long as I'll live.
I remember it because I was driving home from my mother's and the detective phoned me and asked me to pull in.

Speaker 27 He said,

Speaker 27 I've brought her in for questioning and I've charged her.

Speaker 27 And he said, Are you okay?

Speaker 27 And I said, Yeah,

Speaker 27 but I was shaking.

Speaker 26 She thought she'd feel a sense of justice, but really,

Speaker 26 she just felt heartbreak.

Speaker 27 Bear in mind, I still loved her.

Speaker 27 Love is not like a light switch.

Speaker 27 You don't ever switch it off.

Speaker 27 I loved the bones of her.

Speaker 27 She was a fabulous friend. She was there for me in some of my darkest, darkest hours.

Speaker 27 And then I was confused. She stood and read a eulogy at Joanna's funeral.

Speaker 27 How could you do that? How could you do that?

Speaker 26 But Angela's heartbreak turned to rage when the police uncovered new information. It turned out, Lindsay's fraud didn't start with Rainbow Valley.

Speaker 26 She had also stolen from the Anthony Nolan Trust, the place where Angela and Lindsay first met.

Speaker 26 And the police charged her with that fraud too.

Speaker 27 I think that was the point where I felt

Speaker 27 angry

Speaker 27 then because I thought

Speaker 27 you're a serial thief

Speaker 27 and it's just left me wondering

Speaker 27 did she ever have any love for any of us

Speaker 27 she worked for the Anthony Nolan Trust when I met her and Joanna needed a bone marrow transplant

Speaker 27 and I questioned did she see Joanna could raise a lot of money were Were we just a meal ticket for her?

Speaker 27 And that hurts like hell.

Speaker 27 Not because she did that to me, but because she maybe did that with Joanna?

Speaker 26 It's an unanswerable question, but they'd been friends for decades. Angela knew Lindsay, and what really motivated her?

Speaker 27 Her husband's family are extremely wealthy and

Speaker 27 elderly.

Speaker 27 So he is in for a big, big, big inheritance. Personally, I just don't think it was coming quick enough to her.

Speaker 27 And her vanity

Speaker 27 and greed

Speaker 27 took over.

Speaker 26 On the day of Lindsay's sentencing hearing,

Speaker 27 the court opened and she

Speaker 27 had to walk past us

Speaker 27 and she stuck her head in the air, stuck her nose in the air and looked in the opposite opposite direction.

Speaker 27 You know, she was very close, had to walk right past me. And I recognised her fully,

Speaker 27 but felt I didn't know her.

Speaker 26 Lindsay ended up pleading guilty to two fraud charges.

Speaker 27 She knew that you get a third off your sentence, so she got four years reduced to three years for pleading guilty.

Speaker 26 Lindsay was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to repay both charities. She did make that repayment, but she only served a quarter of her sentence.
But justice looks different for Angela.

Speaker 26 She wanted honesty and remorse, but that never came.

Speaker 27 I'll never, ever, ever get over it. I'll never

Speaker 27 understand it. I would love to sit in a room with her and just say, please be honest.
Tell me why. and tell me what was going through your head.

Speaker 27 I would love to have a conversation with her, not for me to call her names or to call her out on anything, but just to try and unjumble my brain.

Speaker 27 I miss the person I thought she was. I really do.

Speaker 26 Even though Lindsay's deception devastated Angela, she isn't willing to let it change her values.

Speaker 27 I refuse to live my life not trusting people.

Speaker 27 With what I've been through with Joanna,

Speaker 27 I know there are more good people in the world than there are bad

Speaker 27 and

Speaker 27 that's what I hang on to.

Speaker 27 I've got seven beautiful grandchildren.

Speaker 27 None of them met Joanna but they all know her and they talk about her. When they see rainbows

Speaker 27 If there's a reflection comes into the house and it's bouncing off, they'll say oh Auntie Jo's here

Speaker 26 Angela lost her best friend, but she didn't lose Rainbow Valley. And her decision to bring Lindsay's crime to light, in some ways, has been a positive.

Speaker 26 Today, Rainbow Valley has more interest and support than ever. And Angela dreams of building a permanent center for the charity.

Speaker 26 Joanna's legacy has become part of Angela's legacy too.

Speaker 27 I want this to have longevity and

Speaker 27 be meaningful for people

Speaker 27 way after I've gone.

Speaker 27 I want it to keep growing and flourishing and being there to help people through, you know, a very difficult period of their life.

Speaker 26 We end all of our weekly episodes with the same question.

Speaker 26 Why do you want to share your story?

Speaker 27 I'm telling this story mainly because you asked.

Speaker 27 But

Speaker 27 Rainbow valley was joanna's dream lindsay tried to turn it into a nightmare

Speaker 27 and i wanted the world to know what she had done and who she really was

Speaker 27 but i also want people to realize that they can survive the worst times of their life

Speaker 27 and

Speaker 27 joanna taught me to stand tall

Speaker 27 because that's what she did.

Speaker 27 If she could do it, I've got to.

Speaker 27 You know, when you have a rainbow, it's guarantee the sun will come out

Speaker 27 eventually.

Speaker 26 On the next episode of Betrayal Weekly.

Speaker 21 Never, ever did I see that coming.

Speaker 27 Ever.

Speaker 11 I truly thought I was going in to help.

Speaker 21 someone else.

Speaker 27 And then

Speaker 30 I'm being questioned,

Speaker 30 What do you mean?

Speaker 5 I'm his wife. This isn't a crime.
We weren't a crime.

Speaker 26 If you would like to reach out to the betrayal team or want to tell us your betrayal story, email us at betrayalpod at gmail.com. That's betrayalpod at gmail.com.
We're grateful for your support.

Speaker 26 One way to show support is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. And don't forget to rate and review Betrayal.
Five-star reviews go a long way. A big thank you to all of our listeners.

Speaker 26 Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison.

Speaker 26 Hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. Written and produced by Monique Laborde.
Also produced by Ben Fetterman. Associate producers are Kristen Mel Curie and Caitlin Golden.

Speaker 26 Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio.
Additional editing support from Tanner Robbins. Betrayals theme composed by Oliver Baines.

Speaker 26 Music library provided by MIBE Music. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 28 Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.

Speaker 4 Where did that story come from?

Speaker 27 Book?

Speaker 29 Dream?

Speaker 2 Nope, it came from a conversation.

Speaker 7 Meet Miko Mini Plus, the AI companion that co-creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time.

Speaker 30 What color was the hamster's cape? And what did he pack for lunch?

Speaker 5 Unlock your child's imagination.

Speaker 6 Discover Miko Mini Plus and the magic of AI exclusively at Costco.

Speaker 9 This is Sophie Cunningham from Show Me Something.

Speaker 12 Do you know the symptoms of moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea or OSA in adults with obesity?

Speaker 14 They may be happening to you without you knowing.

Speaker 15 If anyone has ever said you snored loudly or if you spend your days fighting off excessive tiredness, irritability, and concentration issues, it may be due to OSA.

Speaker 16 OSA is a serious condition where your airway partially or completely collapses during sleep, which may cause breathing interruptions and oxygen deprivation.

Speaker 22 Learn more at don'tsleep on osa.com.

Speaker 13 This information is provided by Lilly, a medicine company.

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Speaker 31 You just put him in a little bag or you put him in a little container and he's good to go. Make sure to pick up your little one's favorite Gerber products at a store near you.

Speaker 1 Did a GLP-1 help you lose weight, but now you're noticing unwanted facial changes? The weight came off. But facial volume loss and dull sagging skin are making you look older.

Speaker 1 That's where the next phase of your weight loss journey comes in. There's before weight loss, after weight loss, and the after after.

Speaker 1 Help restore and refresh your facial skin and reclaim your natural-looking youthful glow. To learn more, visit faceafterweightloss.com.
That's faceafterweightloss.com. This is an iHeart podcast.