Danielle Epstein dumped her boyfriend because his cancer battle was “damaging” her own mental health signed up to run the TCS London Marathon in his honor last weekend but never actually showed up for the race, it seems.
The 32-year-old couldn’t cope after her ex-boyfriend, Jelle Fresen, 37, was diagnosed with grade 4 medulloblastoma, a very rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. She decided to leave him to fight on alone but figured she could make it up to him by running the marathon to raise money for brain cancer research. However, it seems like didn’t follow through with the plan in the end, for whatever reason.
Not long after the marathon finished on April 23, a savvy social media user noticed that it didn’t look as though Danielle Epstein even ended up running the London Marathon as there was no record of her on the website after it ended.
“The marathon’s official site does not list a half or finish time for Danielle Epstein. So, if she ran at all, she did not make it to the halfway point it seems,” they said.
Indeed, while her name is listed on the official TCS London Marathon website, there’s no evidence that she ever turned up for the marathon or ran it at all.
Jelle Fresen has been through hell
Fresen’s cancer story is heartbreaking and incredibly brave. After being diagnosed in September 2022, he underwent a 17-hour surgery and had to learn to walk again after it was complete. He then had to undergo nine months of chemo and six weeks of radiation, and Epstein just wasn’t down for that.
“I felt like the most awful person, leaving somebody because they have cancer, but it was damaging my mental health, and it wasn’t helping Jelle,” she told SWNS (via NY Post).
According to Epstein, she was so “worried” and “devastated” about her former boyfriend that she wasn’t eating much and struggled to sleep. Despite taking a lot of medication for her mental health, she still suffered panic attacks and decided she just couldn’t do it anymore.
“I was having panic attacks and was on so much medication to sort myself out I just couldn’t function,” she said. “I still love Jelle deeply and want to support him, but I came to realize I couldn’t stay with him as his partner.
While she can’t be there for him anymore as he continues to try and beat this awful disease, Danielle Epstein did decide that running the marathon to raise money for brain tumor research might go some way in making it up to him.
“I felt so helpless watching all this unfold, so I knew I had to do something,” she said. “We were on a certain path to a certain future, and within one day we knew it wasn’t going to work out like that anymore.”
After dumping Fresen, she moved to Thailand to be with her dad but offered to stay friends. And while you would think he might feel slighted for being neglected, Fresen actually came out to support Epstein and said he has “so much respect for her discipline and perseverance.”
At the time of writing, Epstein’s JustGiving page for the marathon has raised £14,140 (about $17,650) for Brain Tumour Research.
Not everyone was impressed with Danielle Epstein’s marathon pledge
I seriously thought this was a made up story until I searched "Danielle Epstein Marathon" – Un-FUCKIN-REAL. You seriously cannot make this shit up.
— lab rador (@labrado89199358) April 20, 2023
Perhaps unsurprisingly, not everyone has taken kindly to the idea of Epstein dumping her partner the minute things got tough but still trying to make herself look good by publicly raising money for the cause. Social media went nuts when the story broke, with many calling out her callous and cruel actions.
“I seriously thought this was a made-up story until I searched ‘Danielle Epstein Marathon’ – Un-F**KIN-REAL. You seriously cannot make this sh*t up,” one detractor tweeted. Another wrote: “Like, I get it, but I want nothing but bad things for her. I would’ve been like ‘You can keep your damn marathon!’ You hear that, Danielle Epstein? You are no hero!”
And considering she never even ran in the end, she really isn’t.
