Marron began campaigning against the "outrageous claims" made by some alternative therapists, instead promoting that people should have access to reliable, evidence-based information. "They need protecting; they are victims twice — first of the disease, and then of the behaviour of alternative therapists." She studied a series of short courses at
Bond University in the Faculty of Health Science and Medicine to improve her understanding of the issues, but she emphasizes that she is not a medical professional. Instead, she has worked with medical specialists, researchers, and practitioners to ensure her information is backed by evidence. Initially she worked with her GP and the Adverse Medicines Advice service to create a brochure on how to get good advice, and then a website called
Health Information, aimed at helping other patients to get trustworthy medical information that is based on reliable evidence. Some of the claims for these products included promising to "nourish the fei", "tonify the qi", transform "turbid dampness", "nourish the blood", harmonise the "middle jiao", or to stimulate "energy meridians to aid stress relief". She pointed out that the enormous amount of money involved in supplementary, complementary and alternative medical treatments, estimated by
The Sydney Morning Herald as $1.8billion
perannum in Australia, is an incentive to continue these practices regardless of the public welfare. "Desperate people will do anything when they are sick", she says. Her investigations into unsupported claims started with
fundamental (vitalistic) chiropractic practitioners who claimed to cure a range of unrelated conditions and to be an alternative to vaccination. In the state of New South Wales, she identified 50 chiropractic practitioners whose treatment plans explicitly covered pregnant women, babies, and children. In particular, she called for the chiropractic pediatric clinic run by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, which recorded 113 patients aged 13 and under, to be closed down, and to stop using government funds to pay for these practices. 2016
Jelly bean lady Marron developed a character loosely based on advertisements for a "natural therapist" and substituting "
jelly bean" instead to highlight some of the more ridiculous claims. She started to refer to this role as a "Jelly bean therapist", complete with a range of mock jelly bean "therapies". She substituted jelly beans for the magnets in one of the underlays, and had participants test them using a meter that measures magnetism. They were not able to tell which one had the magnets and which one had the jelly beans through the mattress – the results were the same. This trial was telecast on Channel Nine, and their journalist suggested the name "Jelly Bean Lady" which Marron stayed with. Her conclusion that the magnets were just as effective as jelly beans, was an effective way to communicate the results accurately to a non-technical audience, without using jargon about topics such as controls and blinding. She further developed this persona of "the Jellybean Lady", including colourful clothing to play well on television, as a fun way to engage people's attention while being easily identifiable. Later in
New Idea magazine it was changed slightly to become the "Candy Crusader". It also helped to keep a clear distinction that she was not a medical professional. Over this period, she became a frequent contributor to the media, including investigative journalism pieces to expose alternative therapists making false and misleading claims. A high-profile investigation on
A Current Affair involved a beauty therapist who claimed that she could cure cancer by injecting sufferers with a
mixture of citric acid and sodium chlorite. Marron's under-cover investigation was covered on national television, including showing the practitioner mixing up and injecting the mixture into Maria Worth, who was dying of breast cancer and paid $2000 for the "treatment". Four days later, Worth was in the emergency ward at Toowoomba Hospital with life-threatening blood clots. Marron's evidence contributed to the Supreme Court's determination that the practitioner was unqualified and unregistered, ordering her to discontinue the treatment in 2009. Her investigations into fraudulent practices led to cancellations of the approvals for nine alternative "medical" devices from the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods in 2010, and another 31 in 2011. The organization has grown to gain the support of over 1000 doctors, researchers and supporters, including Nobel laureates and three winners of
Australian of the Year.
Training and regulation of unproven methods National registration has led to many alternative practitioners being registered by the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Authority (AHPRA), which is the same federal body that covers doctors and nurses. However, the alternative practitioners are not required to provide evidence of their methods' efficacy because they are deemed low-risk. At the same time, a number of colleges and even universities run courses in supplementary, complementary and alternative methodologies. Marron is concerned that instead of providing improved accountability, these changes may simply confer an appearance of respectability and professionalism which is not warranted: "Once they are regulated, that legitimises them, but it comes with a responsibility to consumers; they can't have it both ways," she says. Marron is particularly critical of universities which teach courses in unproven treatments, some of which have lecturers who promote their own practices and products in the process. In 2011, she wrote to the Federal Health Minister outlining the seriousness of the problem, which she said "is a form of child abuse", calling for universities to stop teaching health-related courses which could not produce adequate evidence to support their claims. The submission incorporated 20 pages of supporting letters from leading academics and clinicians. It focussed especially on the RMIT University chiropractic paediatric clinic, which dismissed the claims it was teaching techniques that could be harmful, although it acknowledged there was an "overall lack of high-level clinical evidence in chiropractic". Marron supports giving students the knowledge to critically appraise all therapies. She is concerned that the lack of consistent standards currently does not support this: "The two victims of the self-regulatory system are consumer health and truth." ==Awards and recognition==