A social media clip recorded by former professional boxer and Team GB[1] Olympian turned CBD oil entrepreneur Anthony Fowler as he walked down a street in Italy with his young son last month creates the impression that he has found a miraculous answer to the child’s autism.
Under a blue sky, a bare-chested, beaming Fowler claims that a treatment called ‘chelation’ has allowed the boy, Luca, to walk with him, rather than run off or have a tantrum. Evidence, he says, of the treatment’s success.
What he doesn’t reveal is that ‘chelation’, which removes metals from the body, is based on the unproven and fake claim that children with autism have ‘hidden’ metal toxicity, and that mercury in particular can cause it.
Multiple studies show that chelation can cause kidney and liver damage, heart failure and seizures. It caused the death of a five-year-old British boy in 2005, after he had been brought to Pennsylvania[2] for treatment for autism.
Fowler boxed for Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics[3] and has used celebrity influencers including Matt Le Tissier, Paul Merson[4] and Katie Price[5] to build his business, Supreme CBD. He does not discuss the risks of a process which the NHS[6] website states is ‘fake’ and ‘can be harmful’ and which the National Autistic Society says should ‘never’ be used on people of any age who have autism.
Instead, in a series of posts to his 189,000 Instagram followers, he presents himself as something of an expert on autism, having spoken to ‘doctors in Italy, London and a fella in Greece’ whom he describes as ‘the best of the best’. They all tell him that autism has chemical causes, he says, brandishing a sheaf of papers and trotting out a list of theories which have absolutely no basis in medicine and science.
Former professional boxer Anthony Fowler has falsely suggested that a treatment called chelation can successfully treat autism
Fowler with his Supreme CBD products, which he promotes to his 189,000 Instagram followers
Fowler with his fiancee Serena Stregapede, who has also promoted Supreme CBD
Fowler posted his bizarre autism theories last month in the same week that Donald Trump caused huge concern among medics worldwide, by propounding the dangerous and medically unfounded view that mothers who take paracetamol during pregnancy risk giving birth to autistic children. Decades of exhaustive medical research on autism has established that neither the neurological condition nor its behavioural patterns can be ‘cured’, mitigated or made more likely by drugs.
There was a backlash against Fowler from some on social media, who saw the dangers in a healthy-looking ex-sports star and influencer giving desperate parents the misguided hope that here was some kind of ‘cure’ for some of their children’s symptoms.
Fowler, who won Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow in 2014 and fought 18 times as a professional, replied: ‘You are saying I can cure it. I never said that. But I want my son to tell me how his day was and how he is feeling. Let me know if he has any problems.’
He does list Applied Behaviour Analysis, which is an authentic psychological discipline and has helped many people, among 15 approaches he says he is trying.
When Daily Mail Sport, posing as an autistic child’s relative, approached Fowler for more information on his alternative autism ‘treatments’, as part of an undercover investigation into him and Liverpool-based Supreme CBD, he made no further mention of ‘chelation’ or other alternative treatments he had listed, including ‘global healing brain drops’ and ‘rare mox liquid’. Instead, the 34-year-old told us that his own CBD products were the answer and that he would sell us some.
Asked by us to help a nine-year-old autistic child we told him was a nephew, Fowler recommended his own company’s gummies, which contain the psychoactive product cannabidiol (CBD). Fowler told us: ‘I give the CBD to my own kids. The CBD is brilliant for helping calm the system down.’
Agreeing a sale, he told us, ‘I’ll sort you the 3200mg gummies for £25 all in, they’d be £50 on the website’ and gave us the bank details for ‘Anthony Fowler Limited’ in which we could make the payment, with £5 for postage. Fowler sells all his products at a heavy discount to his social media followers.
The gummies arrived a few days later, with directions including ‘keep away from children’ on the back of the pack. What Fowler did not mention when suggesting we buy them is that every British regulator overseeing the safety of medicines and supplements advise that CBD products should not be taken by children under the age of 18.
Fowler fought 18 times as a professional – winning 16 times and losing twice – after winning Commonwealth gold in 2014
He was part of Team GB for the Rio Olympics in 2016 (pictured here with fellow boxers Nicola Adams and Lawrence Okolie) but lost in the first round to Kazakhstan’s Janibek Alimkhanuly
Stregapede with Katie Price and Kerry Katona
Selling them for children’s use is not illegal and the 0.4 per cent levels of hemp-derived cannabidiol which his firm’s gummies’ packaging states as the quantity is low. But the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Food Standards Agency, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and NHS all advise against giving unregulated CBD products to children.
That is because tests have shown the CBD levels can sometimes differ from what is labelled and because there is no research to show the products are effective for autism, ADHD, anxiety, sleep problems or general pain in children – some of the problems that Fowler says they do resolve. Since the CBD products are supplements, not medicines, they bypass the same MHRA regulation that proper medical grade drugs would. There is no way of being sure to a clinical standard what is in them – though no evidence any of his products are harming anyone, either.
Ian Hamilton, associate professor in addiction at York University, told Daily Mail Sport that he was highly concerned that the products were being sold for children.
‘We don’t really know what the effects of CBDs are on children,’ he said. ‘It’s a psychoactive product and people take a false sense of security that it’s used in medicine. As a supplement, it is not subject to the same quality check and up to a medical grade. These are sweets. We don’t know who produces them up to what standard and how reliable that percentage of CBD is.
‘It’s offering parents and children false hope and that’s the distressing part. What really worries me is the appeal these sports influencers carry. Their former sport status implies, “These are people who look after their bodies, they are very astute”.
‘So without even saying anything about the products, it gives that message. It’s not somebody who’s just been on Love Island. It’s someone who has been at the peak of their physical fitness.’
Among the influencers Fowler has employed to build his company is Ricky Hatton. A number of the firm’s other ‘ambassadors’ came under fire last month when shoe-horning references to Supreme CBD products into their tributes to the late boxer. An image of Hatton standing next to the Supreme CBD logo dominates Fowler’s Twitter profile, which many will view to be in poor taste.
Le Tissier and John Hartson were found to be in breach of advertising rules last year by posting promotional tweets about Supreme CBD products because they did not reveal they were being paid by the firm to do so, as ‘ambassadors’, and because they claimed the product could ‘prevent, treat or cure disease’, which is against the UK marketing code.
Hatton promoted Fowler’s products, such as gummies, on his X account – his last-ever post encouraged his fans to ‘try Supreme CBD’
Ricky Hatton (centre) with Stregapede and Fowler – they both posted tributes to the late boxer when he died last month
Former glamour model Katie Price has also acted as an ambassador for the company
The ‘CBD Bears’ sent to us by Supreme CBD after we enquired on behalf of an autistic nine-year-old about treatments – the packet carries a warning to ‘keep away from children’
Hartson amended his tweets and is no longer working for the company. But Le Tissier, Merson, Chris Kirkland and Mark Crossley are all currently listed as Supreme CBD ‘ambassadors’ and all tweeting about its products with discount codes, often without disclosing a commercial link. Merson tweets about nothing but Supreme.
While they are the followers, Fowler is the self-styled Messiah, with videos advising people on the moral codes by which they should live their lives amid clips promoting his products and the discount codes they can use.
Like other ex-sportsmen who have used supplement promotion to make money after their career in the ring or on the pitch ends, the former bronze medallist at the AIBA World Championships has made a core marketing sell out of his personal narrative, describing an impoverished childhood, as one of five children of a single mother on drugs, and a struggle with pain and anxiety after boxing.
Through his videos, he projects an image of himself as a beautiful individual, adored by thousands of followers because of his generosity in introducing them to his products at a low price. He posts clips of himself standing bare-chested in the sun at his six-bedroom villa in Spain or, occasionally, with his fashion model wife Serena Stregapede. He promotes holiday rental deals on the villa to his followers.
He has posted clips of piles of CBD products waiting to be shipped and claims strong sales. The form of accounts his firm files at Companies House does not include profit and loss figures. Firms have no obligation to reveal these before rules on disclosure change from April 2027.
Those who question the Supreme CBD ‘religion’ find themselves under attack from Fowler or his followers. An attack on established medicine – ‘big pharma’ – has also been key to his promotion of his cannabis oils.
Fowler declared in a post last month: ‘I hate the media. They try and get me thoughts and all want to interview me to go into their papers. I don’t talk to the media. Don’t message me for me thoughts on this this and this. I don’t care. Me answer is, “F*** the media, you are all horrible”.’
The organisations leading medical and academic efforts to help those with autism, and build a better understanding of the condition, despair of the messages that are being put out by Fowler and others like him.
Fowler won a bronze medal at the 2013 AIBA World Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan as a 22-year-old
Fowler knocks out Ryan Toms in 2018 in his home city of Liverpool
Former Arsenal and England footballer Paul Merson frequently posts about Supreme CBD as one of its ambassadors
The NHS website’s advice on treatments for autism, and how to spot fake and harmful ones
Dr Rachel Moseley of Bournemouth University, one of Britain’s leading researchers into autism, told Daily Mail Sport: ‘People keep drawing these relationships between doing and eating different things, taking supplements, and autism, but it’s a complete fallacy.
‘We believe people are born autistic – it’s in their genes – but part of the reason people make these errors is we can’t diagnose autism until a child is at an age where you can see social and cognitive differences.
‘The autism diagnosis often comes a little bit later, usually after they’ve received their infant vaccinations, so people say, “Oh these vaccines, dietary differences or whatever, now my child is autistic”, like these things have caused it. Your child has always been autistic, always been developing differently, but you couldn’t detect it until a certain point, which happens to be after the point when they’ve been vaccinated or shown the behaviour that you think is causing autism.’
We directly messaged Fowler 11 times, as a supposed concerned relative, to ask him about his autism ‘products’. Though he didn’t reply to four questions about chelation, he responded within two hours on each occasion to all general questions, leading to our purchase of the gummies.
He has been less engaged with Daily Mail Sport’s emails, calls and social media DMs to him in the past few days, asking him to discuss his validation of a fake treatment and his suggestion that gummies be used for children, in the face of medical and regulatory advice.
A member of staff at his business premises indicated on Thursday that Fowler was in the building and would be informed of our wish to speak. As of Thursday evening, there had been no response from him.
References
- ^ Team GB (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Pennsylvania (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Olympics (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Paul Merson (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Katie Price (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ NHS (www.dailymail.co.uk)