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A young woman who defrauded friends and strangers out of thousands of pounds by claiming she had terminal cancer has avoided an immediate jail term. Danielle Watson, 24, a mother of two, courted publicity on social media and made local headlines after announcing she had late-stage cervical cancer and consequently claimed donations, free gifts and cut-price deals for her wedding worth almost �10,000. She gave regular updates on her treatment and condition in order to continue the deceit, Basildon crown court heard on Friday. The then 21-year-old administration assistant brought forward her wedding by several months so she could walk up the aisle before, she claimed, radiotherapy and chemotherapy made her hair fall out. But in fact she had minor surgery for a treatable gynaecological condition and had never been diagnosed with, or treated for, cancer. Watson admitted six counts of fraud by false representation at an earlier hearing. She cried in the dock as the recorder Gerard Pounder sentenced her to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years, and ordered her to do 200 hours� community work. Pounder said: �You showed a supreme lack of maturity in the way in which you conducted your life. It is a great testament to the many people who dealt with you with supreme generosity because they believed you only had a short time left on this planet.� He did not order her to pay prosecution costs so that she could instead use the money to repay her victims. Watson, of Rowhedge, near Colchester, brought her six-week-old son to court with her and wrote a letter to the judge expressing her remorse. Rebecca Blain, mitigating, said Watson only confirmed to friends and family that she had lied on the day she pleaded guilty last October. �The genesis of these lies was opportunistic when she was diagnosed with polyps and had to undergo a routine operation. She did this on a whim and did not think through the wider impact of those lies,� Blain said. Watson had access to a �substantial lump sum� and hoped to pay �800 a month back to her victims, she added. Outside court, Vicky Oliver, who had regarded Watson as a close friend and raised nearly �2,000 for her, said the sentence was a travesty. �I feel completely betrayed � she gets to walk away scot-free and I don�t think we�ll ever see that money again. She always made me feel good when I told her what I�d done for her, but now I know that it was all lies.� Suspicions were aroused when Watson failed to provide proof of her illness, demanded all donations be paid to her account, and then, in June 2012, announced she was pregnant. Among those taken in were The Ivory Rooms in Billericay, which provided her with a free wedding reception and drinks, worth about �1,000. When Watson told her friend Sarah Cumper she had only a 15-20% chance of survival, Cumper contacted the Basildon Echo, the court heard. At first Watson was reluctant to be photographed by the newspaper but the coverage �snowballed� from there, Shirley said. Watson�s crimes included organising a �1,640 Twitter auction, raffles, cake sales and fundraising nights at which she brought in almost �10,000 towards vitamin C treatment. Some of the victims already knew Watson but others came forward after she appeared in the media.