Dear Belle, this is what real cancer looks like

When disgraced wellness guru Belle Gibson was found guilty of “most but not all” charges of defrauding clients and profiting from the false claims that she cured her terminal brain cancer by shunning chemotherapy and turning to healthy eating, real cancer patients around the country rejoiced.

Now she's been officially fined $410,000 by the Federal Court in Melbourne.

At the time 35-year-old mum of two and cancer survivor Jo Zupin, was glad to see her convicted.

"I wouldn’t want to put myself in a position where I’m face to face with her,” she tells Be.

If Jo hadn't had to go through the trauma of chemo and radiotherapy to give herself the best chance of fighting stage two breast cancer, she certainly wouldn’t have chosen it.

She wouldn’t have seen her eyelashes and fingernails fall out, and been too weak to shower herself without help. She wouldn’t have missed out on all that precious time she could have been playing with her two and four year old sons.

“The chemo throws you about, you’re not yourself, you can’t even concentrate enough to drive,” Jo says of her own experience with chemotherapy.

“It gives you haemorrhoids, it give you gastro runs, you get pins and needles in your feet, your eyelashes fall out, your nose hairs – I know it sounds really silly but I miss my nose hairs! The membrane of my nostrils became so thin that I had about seven to eight nosebleeds a day.

“Chemo changes who you are, it takes you to the brink and your body’s gotta bounce back from it.”

RELATED: Fake cancer blogger guilty of 'misleading and deceptive conduct'

Belle, 25, made up to a million dollars through her The Whole Pantry book and app, where she positioned herself as living proof that diet-based cures for cancer work.

Jo is justifiably “infuriated” by the false hope Belle gave her victims, and while the blogger faces a personal fine of up to $220K (and a $1.1 million fine for her business), Jo believes she should serve time.

“The justice system can’t do enough. Do I think she deserves life in prison, no. But then again I think she does deserve time in prison – and a psychiatric ward as well," she says.

“I’m upset and angry for the people she’s conned.

“You can’t take advantage of cancer sufferers it’s just not fair, we go through enough as is. We’re pushed to the brink mentally, emotionally, physically, and then to be fed a bunch of lies about how you can change your diet and be cancer-free!”

After being diagnosed in July last year and undergoing a mastectomy on her right breast, Jo finished chemo in December and radiotherapy last month.

RELATED: Mum whose baby accidentally starved tells
RELATED: Incredible photo captures messy reality of motherhood

She’s since been told she has the BRCA1 gene, a hereditary gene passed down from her grandfather, which means she will now have to undergo a second mastectomy and have her uterus and fallopian tubes removed.

“It lowers my chance of the cancer returning from 90 per cent to 10 per cent,” she explains.

“I have two kids to take care of, I’m not going anywhere.”

Want more celebrity, entertainment and lifestyle news? Follow Be on Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram