Sheffield man speaks out on Devon mum who faked childhood illness – BBC News
BBC Homepage
Skip to content
Accessibility Help
Your account
Home
News
Sport
Earth
Reel
Worklife
Travel
Culture
Future
Music
TV
Weather
Sounds
More menu
More menu
Search BBC
Home
Climate
World
UK
Business
Tech
Science
Entertainment & Arts
Health
In Pictures
More
BBC Verify
Newsbeat
England
Regions
Sheffield & South Yorkshire
‘Mum still believes she was right to fake my illness’
Image source: PA Media
Image caption: Matthew Johnson said watching the documentary solidified his decision not to speak to his mother
By Julia Bryson
Reporting from Yorkshire
Published 19 August 2026
As a child, Matthew Johnson was known as "Britain’s sickest boy" – but in reality, his illness was just a fantasy made up by his mother to gain publicity and financial rewards.
For six-and-a-half years, Lisa Hayden-Johnson claimed Matthew had a long list of illnesses including diabetes, food allergies, cerebral palsy, and cystic fibrosis, but years later it emerged she had made it all up. Hayden-Johnson, from Torbay, Devon, was jailed and Matthew went into foster care and started a new life in Sheffield.
Both were interviewed for a Channel 4 documentary called Love You To Death, but after hearing his mother speak, Matthew said he had "mixed emotions" and it reinforced his decision not to speak to her.
Speaking to the BBC about how it felt to hear his mother’s point of view, he said:
"It was a lot of disappointment but I think also frustration as almost two decades on, there is still a lack of accountability from her side. When I could see, even after two decades… she still holds the same story and believes that she did the best by me… that obviously isn’t right."
Hayden-Johnson was 35 when she was
jailed for three years and three months by a judge at Exeter Crown Court in 2010.
The court heard her lies began when Matthew was born prematurely in 2001 and given a tube for feeding. He recovered but his mother insisted that this was not the case. Hayden-Johnson lied about her son’s health for years, claiming he had symptoms despite doctors being unable to find any. She also told doctors the child had diabetes and spiked his urine samples with glucose in order to fool tests.
Doctors, friends, family, and even the boy’s father believed the child was unable to eat or swallow food. Her actions led to Matthew being operated on and being fed through a tube in his stomach. She introduced him in a wheelchair to the then Duchess of Cornwall, now Queen Camilla, appeared on television, and amassed thousands of pounds in benefits.
It wasn’t until 2007 that a paediatrician became suspicious that Matthew’s health problems had gone on for so long without a clear diagnosis. Hayden-Johnson was eventually arrested in October 2007 and jailed three years later.
Image source: Channel 4
Image caption: Matthew Johnson said his mother "still holds the same story" after two decades
Matthew said thinking back to the time his mother’s lies unravelled was like a "fever dream".
"I was taken into foster care. I was looked after by a few different people, taken away from my dad and my sister, the family pets. It was quite difficult. But as I look back, it was something that happened quite quickly and I was able to draw a fresh slate when I moved to Sheffield and that’s how I’ve sort of managed to move on from it."
"I always like to say that my life mainly started when I was in Sheffield and I can just make the most of that part and leave the other part behind."
Image source: Irving of Exeter
Image caption: Hayden-Johnson, from Torbay, Devon, said she had no comment to make on the case after her release from prison.
