GoFundMe for Texas man who went viral hauling bags for wife’s cancer bills is removed over ‘factual’ issues
Donald and Josephine Johnson have had their GoFundMe campaign shut down, which aimed to raise money for Josephine's cancer treatment, due to a possible violation of GoFundMe's terms of service.KXASShareAdd NBC News to GoogleSept. 28, 2026, 11:51 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 28, 2026, 2:25 PM EDTBy David K. Li and Elena Nicolaou, TODAYGoFundMe pulled the plug Sunday on a campaign to raise money for an elderly Texas couple, saying it had “identified factual misrepresentations.”
The account was created after the husband went viral for working a backbreaking job to cover his wife’s mounting bills for cancer treatment.
The digital fundraising site did not immediately reveal what kind of misrepresentations were behind its decision to end the campaign set to benefit Donald and Josephine Johnson.
The GoFundMe gained national attention and raised nearly $290,000 before it was pulled down.
The campaign was started by a “concerned stranger” identified as “Erin H,” who said she spotted on her Ring camera the 81-year-old husband struggling to carry heavy luggage up a flight of stairs.
The organizer said she asked why he was working such a physically demanding job at his age, and Johnson said his wife was fighting cancer and this was the only job he could find to pay the overwhelming hospital bills.
Door camera footage shows Donald Johnson preparing to carry luggage up a flight of stairs.KXASBut somewhere along the line, GoFundMe said it found “misrepresentations” in the campaign.
The platform received a tip that the organizer of the campaign might not be who they said they were. GoFundMe investigators called the organizer, who admitted that she was in fact the Johnsons’ daughter, that she had shot the viral video and that the concerned stranger was a made-up persona.
The organizer, however, said the other aspects of Donald and Josephine Johnson’s story were true. She told GoFundMe’s team that the story would be more compelling if it were told by a stranger and not a family member.
“Our Trust & Safety team identified factual misrepresentations, which directly violates our Terms of Service,” the platform said in a statement to NBC News on Sunday. “As a result, the fundraiser has been removed and all donors have been refunded.”
The platform, who did not name the organizer of the fundraiser, said it has no choice but to take tough action in order to maintain trust with donors.
“Ensuring GoFundMe is a safe and trusted place to give and receive help is our top priority. Taking action like this allows GoFundMe to protect donors’ generosity and our continued ability to support people who are fundraising to help others,” GoFundMe said.
“GoFundMe’s policies, along with those of our payment processors, require authenticity and transparency for donors, and are strictly enforced,” it said. “Because that standard wasn’t met here, donors were protected under our GoFundMe Giving Guarantee, which guarantees a full refund in the rare case something isn’t right.”
The Johnsons’ appeal for help has since been taken to an alternate fundraising site, GiveSendGo.
There, the couple’s daughter, Amy Johnson, explained that her parents are fighting their mother’s pancreatic cancer and that the luggage-hauling job is real.
“My dad is 81 and still works delivering luggage so they can stay afloat,” according to the GiveSendGo listing. “The neighbor story is real. The doorcam video is real. The diagnosis is real. The job is real.”
A fundraising effort was already on for her dad via GoFundMe, but once the viral video emerged, the family decided to change the campaign’s organizer’s name to “Erin H,” to reflect the video captured by this stranger who wanted to remain anonymous, Amy Johnson said.
But that name change amounted to an unintentional violation of GoFundMe terms, according to the daughter.
“That was it. We didn’t know it was a problem,” the daughter said in a TikTok video. “I have to come out because someone wanted to do something out of pure kindness, but wanted to remain anonymous.”
Amy Johnson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Donald Johnson could not immediately be reached.
GiveSendGo calls itself a faith-based platform that hopes to “share God’s love” in the most efficient manner possible. It’s been used to raise funds for Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse, a Minnesota woman caught using a racist slur on camera and to support Canadian truckers who blocked highways in protest of Covid restrictions.
Asked about the validity of the Johnson campaign, GiveSendGo said in a statement: “We do not allow fundraisers to deceive the public about who or what is being fundraised for. Every fundraiser on GiveSendGo is reviewed by our verification team before any funds are released.”
David K. LiSenior Breaking News Reporter
