Ryan Prosser
Published November 23, 2025 3:01pm
Updated November 23, 2025 3:12pm
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Lara Simpson told students and colleagues that she had terminal leukaemia before faking her own death
A teacher who lied to her students about being diagnosed with cancer and having just months to live is now running a dance school for children, according to reports.
Lara Simpson deceived her colleagues and pupils by posing as her aunt to back up claims that her ‘terminal illness’ had claimed her own life.
She was also found to have sent emails claiming to be her relatives, sharing forwarding addresses to staff and students so they could send gifts and make tributes at her fictitious funeral.
Ms Simpson’s deception began when she informed a primary school in Dundee where she was doing a placement that she had leukaemia.
The 26-year-old was just weeks from achieving a first-class degree in education at the city’s university.
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She once turned up to classes in a wheelchair and wearing a prosthetic leg to aid her story, The Mail on Sunday reported.
Over two years she continued to attend school with various pieces of equipment to show her ‘incurable condition’, including breathing tubes, crutches and even a wig.
The teacher developed her bogus illness by explaining to colleagues that she had six months to live and intended to use the time to get married, even inviting her school co-workers to her fake wedding and asking a student to be a bridesmaid.
Ms Simpson was spotted months after her ‘death’ at a community run in the Highlands and is still teaching (Picture: Facebook)
On another occasion in late 2022, students and staff waited outside a hospital on the belief that Ms Simpson was being rushed there by helicopter.
By March 2023 she spread the fabrication she had passed away from her illness and posed as family relatives to continue with her secret life.
However seeds of suspicion were sown after presents sent to the hospice where Ms Simpson allegedly spent the last five months of her life were returned.
Then, months after her supposed ‘death’, the teacher was spotted at a community running event.
It has since transpired that she continued to teach since faking her own death and now leads classes at a dance school.
One of her former colleagues in Dundee said the school was ‘gobsmacked and angry’ after realising they had consistently deceived.
Ms Simpson now runs a dance school in Thurso, despite being struck off the teaching register earlier this year (Picture: Northpix)
‘And now to find out she is still working with children is shocking. This woman should never be allowed to be in charge of children’, they said.
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Despite being the subject of an investigation under anonymity and struck off from the teaching register earlier this year, Ms Simpson is now running her own school, LAS Dance Collective, in Thurso.
According to its website, the school provides ‘recreational’ classes including ballet to children from three years old.
The centre is even promoted by Highland Council, from where Ms Simpson was removed as a teacher after it emerged her cancer story was false.
A spokesperson for the local authority said it would be inappropriate to comment on staffing matters due to issues of confidentiality and data protection.
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