TIMMINS, Ont. - A young woman accused of faking cancer and collecting money for treatment has stunned a northern Ontario family who took the woman into their care after having battled the disease themselves.

Jessica Ann Leeder, 21, is charged with fraud over $5,000. Police allege Leeder pretended to have lung and stomach cancer for close to a year, accepting support, including money, from the community.

"We're alleging that she doesn't and never has had cancer," Timmins police Sgt. Danny Charest said Monday.

Leeder was scheduled to appear in a court Tuesday for a bail hearing after her case was put over Monday.

The allegations come just days after a Toronto-area woman pleaded guilty in a separate case to faking terminal cancer and keeping thousands of dollars in donations.

The charges against Leeder in the latest case have rattled the community.

For Nicole Callegari, it was an automatic response to reach out to Leeder. Callegari and two other family members had battled the disease and they wanted to do everything they could to help.

"Jess has been calling me mom for the last two years," said Callegari, adding she "became very close with this young lady."

"There was nothing that we weren't going to do."

Leeder moved to Timmins more than two years ago from Orillia, claiming she left a bad family life for a brighter future.

Callegari came to know Leeder because she was friends, and eventually roommates, with her daughter Lianne.

The family spent Christmas with Leeder, she said, and for more than a year the northern Ontario community rallied around the woman. Restaurants gave Leeder vouchers for free meals, Good Samaritans dropped off food to her residence and some even hosted a fundraiser for the young woman.

Leeder worked at a Ford car dealership in Timmins, said Callegari. While police would not confirm the name of the dealership, they said a large part of the investigation was linked to Leeder's place of work.

Callegari said the family grew suspicious after Leeder began asking for money for medication and expenses to travel to Toronto for treatment.

"We started digging a little further and my daughter (Lianne) said, 'mom, there's something not right here,"' said Callegari.

Around the same time Callegari discovered her employer had sent Leeder flowers to a hospital in Sudbury, where Leeder also claimed she was receiving treatment.

"The flowers came back," said Callegari. "They (the hospital) said they had nobody there by that name."

Other inconsistencies began to nag at Lianne Callegari. She began to wonder why Leeder still had eyebrows if she was going through chemotherapy.

"It didn't make sense. I watched my grandmother go through it. I watched my mom go through it," said Lianne Callegari, who said sometimes Leeder didn't appear ill at all.

She also watched her family offer endless amounts of money and emotional support to Leeder, and she began to worry.

"My grandma who needs her walker was going to give (Leeder) her walker. My uncle ordered her a brand new motor for her car," she said.

"My family gave her cheques, gave her money, we were all going to give her a place to live when she was back (from treatment)."

It was a large cheque written by Lianne Callegari's uncle to Leeder that eventually prompted Callegari to express her doubts to the rest of her family about her friend. The family cancelled the cheque before it was cashed.

In the other case, the criminal allegations against the Toronto-area woman who faked cancer ignited palpable rage. Searing comments were splashed across the Facebook page set up for Ashley Kirilow's fake charity, Change for a Cure, with some even saying they hoped she got cancer.

Kirilow, 23, of Burlington, Ont., pleaded guilty last Tuesday to one count of fraud over $5,000, which carries a maximum 14-year prison sentence.

She still faces six counts of fraud under $5,000, which each carry a maximum term of two years.

The Crown said Kirilow's motivation was to attract attention.