A quick heads up. This episode contains graphic content that might not be suitable for all listeners, including depictions of child abuse. Listen with care.

Fiona O'Leary has long dyed red hair and dark blue eyes. She talks in a rushed but assured tone, like she's late to an important meeting.

And she is in a way herring to a meeting with people she'd tell you are some of the worst on the internet. Fiona was diagnosed with autism in the early 2000s.

I have five children and four of my children are on the autism spectrum.

In 2013, she went to college in Ireland after the diagnosis. Awareness of autism was exploding in those days and there were a number of bogus cures popping up. Fiona was especially interested in those.

Most of which were benign like broccoli therapy, dolphin therapy horses and all of that kind of thing.

Some of this stuff, like horseback riding, would eventually check out. But the point is there were a lot of ideas out there about how to treat autism and not all of them were exactly evidence-based.

Fiona began to research these different therapies, made it a part of her studies. That's when she opened a door into a world that she would never close.

It started with an assignment. Her teacher asked her to look into some of the more dangerous and unvetted autism treatments out there.

Someone reached out to me through Facebook telling me that there was this group called the Genesis 2 Church and that they were doing some kind of a talk in Ireland.

The talk would include promotion of their product, MMS. A product this person told her, the group claimed would cure children with autism.

And they were actually giving bleach to autistic children.

As a parent and a budding researcher in this field, Fiona was horrified. So Fiona compiles information about this talk. She shares it with a local reporter who writes the story.

The article is published.

When it was like, you know, autistic children being given bleach that's headline and everything just exploded in Ireland.

And I remember at the time thinking that this was like a dream when nightmare I suppose, but it was a reality.

For Fiona, it was most definitely a nightmare. A nightmare she couldn't look away from.

So I became this kind of, I don't know, worldwide activist.

And she wouldn't do it alone. At least not at first.

Concerned mothers of autistic children, activists, and keyboard warriors were beginning to band together.

A loosely affiliated group running uphill to stem the tide of the bleach wave. A group that would become known as the bleach hunters.

From Neonham Media, Sony Music Entertainment, and Bloomberg, I'm Kristen V. Brown, and this is Smoke Screen, Deadly Cure.

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