“Apple Cider Vinegar” is a based-on-a-true-story drama that takes inspiration from the experiences of Belle Gibson, a wellness influencer who lied about a cancer diagnosis. But some other characters in the Netflix show are also loosely inspired by real people, take Milla Blake for instance.
Milla, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey, is a fellow wellness influencer who has made a career out of sharing her cancer journey through alternative treatments. Unlike Belle, Milla actually has cancer. (The real Belle Gibson admitted to lying about having cancer in an interview with Australia’s The Weekly in 2015.)
In the show, doctors find cancer in Milla’s arm. Rather than follow their recommendations and amputate, the 22-year-old opts for an alternate medical regimen involving juice and coffee enemas. She builds a career on the idea that she healed her cancer holistically. It seems to work for a while, until the cancer comes back. This time, the spread is fatal and Milla dies.
Here’s what to know about the facts and fiction of Milla.
Who is Milla Blake based on in real life?
“Milla is an amalgamation of wellness influencers at the time,” Debnam-Carey tells TODAY.com. “We created Milla as her own thing. That was what was so great about it … we could boost her up so that she could be going toe-to-toe with Belle.”
She says the character was inspired in part by Jessica Ainscough, the editor of a teen magazine who was diagnosed with epithelioid sarcoma when she was 22, and nicknamed herself “The Wellness Warrior.”
Indeed, Ainscough and Milla share similarities. In Ainscough’s now-deleted blog post on her five-year diagnosis anniversary in 2013, viewed on the Internet Archive, Ainscough remembered hearing of the diagnosis of epithelioid sarcoma, the same cancer Milla has in the show.
“’The results have told us that you have a rare type of cancer called epithelioid sarcoma.’ I went numb. ‘It’s not treatable with chemotherapy or radiation, and there’s a good chance we will have to amputate your arm but this disease is essentially terminal,’” she wrote.
She wrote that she “didn’t buy into” the doctor’s “presumptions” that she’d be dead in five years and, five years later, was “living and thriving with cancer.”
Ainscough began Gerson Therapy, which involves a diet “based on the theory that it addresses the cause of cancer by detoxifying the body and stimulating metabolism so that the body can heal itself,” per Sloan Kettering.
Gerson Therapy is not scientifically proven, per Sloan Kettering. Ainscough, however, said it worked for her.
In a now-deleted article on Dolly.com, written four years after she was diagnosed, entitled, “I’m healing myself from cancer naturally,” she wrote she was “ecstatic to report” that Gerson worked.
“I have had no cancer spread, no more lumps pop up (they were popping up rapidly before) and I can actually see some of my tumors coming out through my skin and disappearing,” she said.
Ainscough went on to host “Wellness Warrior” events, inviting other wellness figures in the space to join her on stage and speak about their experiences.
What happened to Jess Ainscough?
There are other similarities between Ainscough and the Milla Blake character. Like Milla, Ainscough was in a relationship. She and Tallon Pamenter were engaged and planning to be married in 2015, per her Instagram.
Also like Milla, Ainscough’s mother was also diagnosed with cancer. Sharyn Ainscough died in 2013 of breast cancer.
Ainscough herself died in 2015. According to a statement from her family released after her death by the Sunshine Coast Daily, Ainscough did try “conventional treatment” before her death, but it was unsuccessful.
“It has been speculated by people who have never met or treated Jess that, had she chosen to amputate her arm or undergo further conventional treatment, her chances of survival would have increased. Her treating oncologists do not agree with this uninformed view,” the statement read.
Did Belle Gibson and Jess Ainscough know each other?
The book “The Woman Who Fooled the World,” which inspired “Apple Cider Vinegar,” gets into Ainscough and Gibson’s relationship.
According to the book, they met two years before Ainscough died at a conference outside of Melbourne. Gibson approached Ainscough about her Whole Pantry app.
The book said they were “not friends,” and that Ainscough later said “something was off” about Gibson.
Gibson attended Ainscough’s funeral services and, according to the book, “hysterically sobbed.”
According to the book, Ainscough’s manager clarified on Instagram that there was “no relationship” between the two women.
