The Public Prosecutor's Office said today that due to press coverage, it had ordered an investigation into a woman living in the Algarve who has been collecting donations over several years, allegedly for her cancer treatment.
The investigation aims to assess whether 32-year-old Daniela Costa has been fundraising illegally, pretending she was ill when in fact she was not.
Correio da Manhã reported that Daniela Costa, a mother of three from Albufeira, had pretended to have cancer for two years and managed, through fundraising campaigns, to relieve friends and the general public of tens of thousands of euros.
Costa certainly looked the part with shaved head and frequent use of an oxygen mask to encourage people to make donations.
The Albufeira mother was arrested by police in Lisbon where she was at the Champalimaud Foundation, posing for pictures with cancer patients.
While the prosecutor investigates whether a crime has been committed, Costa has been sent for tests to check not only her medical condition, but also her mental state.
