It all started with a glimmer of hope. But the death of 45-year-old Lee Redpath is a stark and tragic lesson about what can happen when false information meets helplessness. Lee passed away on April 29, 2025, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. He had taken fenbendazole (a medication designed strictly for animals), believing it could treat or even stop his cancer.
The investigation into his death painted a picture of missteps, all stemming from viral misinformation. Fenbendazole is typically used to get rid of intestinal worms in pets and farm animals, and it’s not meant for people at all. Yet, Lee managed to get some from a supplier in Ukraine after reading misleading posts on social media. These claimed that fenbendazole was a miracle cure for cancer.
His partner, Lauren Laul, explained that Lee felt it must be safe because he’d seen people in America using it online, as per The Sun.
Lauren explained to the court, “He saw it online, thought it was safe, people in America are using it. (…) He didn’t have medical assistance taking it so I think some sort of warning should be made.”
Lauren also has reasons to believe that Lee might have been taking the drug, perhaps intermittently, for as much as two years.
Even without any scientific proof, fenbendazole has been promoted as a cancer treatment on forums, YouTube videos, and (most worryingly) by famous celebrities. Actor Mel Gibson recently told Joe Rogan that three of his friends supposedly cured stage four cancer using a mix of fenbendazole and ivermectin, another drug for animals that’s caused controversy when used by people.
But doctors and researchers say there’s no science backing this up.
Dr. Gwilym Webb, a liver specialist at Addenbrooke’s hospital, spoke at an inquest: Fenbendazole has “no proven benefit for preventing or treating cancer in humans.” He concluded that Lee’s liver failure was directly caused by taking the drug in doses that were far higher and over a much longer period than what would ever be considered safe, even for animals.
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NEW ARTICLE: IVERMECTIN and FENBENDAZOLE Testimonial – 69 year old New York man with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer and CA19-9 14934 reports after 2 months
Pancreatic Cancer usually responds incredibly well to repurposed drugs, specifically Ivermectin + Fenbendazole.
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69 year… pic.twitter.com/rPyA7X6El3— William Makis MD (@MakisMD) August 6, 2025
To add insult to injury, Lee was also deemed unfit for a liver transplant because of his recent alcohol abuse. Even though he showed some brief improvements, his organs started to shut down, and he passed away at 6:06 p.m. on April 29.
Assistant coroner Caroline Jones officially declared the cause of death as misadventure, pointing to liver damage caused by fenbendazole on top of his pre-existing alcohol-related cirrhosis. While she recognized how strongly misleading social media information influenced Lee’s choices, she didn’t go as far as issuing a report to prevent similar deaths in the future, explaining that there wasn’t “sufficient evidence.” Nonetheless, she did express concern about how easily people can get their hands on the drug online.
“It constituted a deliberate act with the unintended consequence of his death,” Jones said.
Fenbendazole is the future of cancer treatment.
It’s helped terminal cancer patients achieve complete remission when chemo failed.
Big Pharma can’t patent it, so they ignore it.
Here’s everything you need to know: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/eIPfGjuyjk
— Craig Brockie (@craigbrockie) July 31, 2025
Lauren, heartbroken and still trying to process everything, has since made a strong plea for people to be cautious about the health advice they find online. “People can (…) unknowingly be killing themselves because they didn’t have all the information,” she cautioned.
Lee’s tragic death really brings to light the grave danger of medical misinformation, particularly when it’s backed by celebrities you might not expect or spreads quickly through misleading online trends.
