New teaching arm at Glangwili Hospital's eye department
The device, valued at more than £5,900, allows medical professionals to safely practise and develop their skills in delivering treatments such as Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty (SLT) for glaucoma patients.
Marta Barreiro Martins, senior nurse manager, said: "We are incredibly grateful that Hywel Dda Health Charities has funded this training arm for our department.
"Having a laser unit set up for training will ensure other doctors can be trained and that more laser sessions can be set up in order to be able to treat more patients and reduce their waiting time for treatment."
The teaching arm was funded through public donations.
Nicola Llewelyn, head of Hywel Dda Health Charities, said: "We are deeply grateful for every donation we receive.
"Your support helps us provide additional items and services beyond what the NHS can normally offer in the three counties of Hywel Dda."
More information about the charity and its work is available at the Hywel Dda Health Charities website.
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Times
an hour ago
- Times
Mum's brainwashing killed my sister, and still people fall for her lies
Sebastian Shemirani thinks back often to the warning he gave five years ago. Speaking on a BBC podcast he called his mother, the British former nurse and conspiracy theorist Kate Shemirani, a danger to society. 'I said someone is going to get hurt,' recalls Sebastian, 26, speaking to me on a video call from his home in Tbilisi, Georgia. Then, in December 2023, his sister, Paloma, was diagnosed with cancer. A 23-year-old Cambridge graduate, Paloma died on July 24 last year after refusing cancer treatment on the NHS for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. When diagnosed, she was told that after the recommended course of chemotherapy she had a 80 per cent chance of recovery. She died seven months later. 'I have really struggled to come to terms with the fact that if me or my brother had got cancer, we would've survived,' Sebastian says. 'Part of me hates the world for having decided that the one sister I have who was vulnerable to my mother's beliefs happens to be the one of us who gets cancer and dies. And I was powerless to stop it.' Along with his brother, Gabriel — Paloma's twin — Sebastian believes that their sister was coerced into refusing treatment by their mother. Kate (real name Kay) Shemirani is one of the most prominent conspiracy theorists in Britain. She gained traction during the pandemic; online, where she has more than 80,000 followers on X, she styles herself 'the natural nurse' — despite being struck off by the NHS in 2021 after a speech in Trafalgar Square where she likened nurses and doctors to Nazis. She espouses 'Gerson therapy' which includes a course of natural juices, coffee enemas and a vegan diet and supplements that conspiracy theorists believe can cure cancer. This was the treatment plan Paloma was following when she suffered a cardiac arrest at her mother's house and died a few days later at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, when her life support was turned off. An inquest into her death begins this week. Although Paloma was an adult, her brother believes that she was not in a position to make the decision to refuse treatment, due to coercion from their parents, both of whom believed in conspiracy theories. 'If someone is rejecting cancer treatment for non-terminal cancer, that is evidence that they are not making the right decisions,' he says. Sebastian works in finance and splits his time between Hong Kong and Georgia. He is articulate and direct, only faltering when speaking about his sister's final months. Before the inquest, he and Gabriel are calling for a change in the law, which recognises coercive control but does not have a specific category for conspiracy theory as a means of control. They are also calling for it to be made illegal for unqualified or unregistered individuals to call themselves 'nurse' or 'doctor'. He is also calling for social media companies to use algorithms that 'prioritise facts' over those that spread misinformation. Kate Shemirani continues to operate her business and charges £69.99 for a 12-month subscription to her website. 'Four days ago I saw somebody tweeting Kay, saying, 'My mother's just been diagnosed with cancer, can we book a consultation?'' Sebastian says. 'The person who killed my sister is still out there and the police won't do anything about it.' Sebastian grew up in Uckfield, East Sussex, with his parents and four siblings: the twins, Paloma and Gabriel, who were two years younger, and a younger sister. Their father Faramarz, from Iran, worked in finance, and Kate was a nurse. 'To outsiders, everything looked normal, even fortunate,' Sebastian says. 'We had a decent house, good grades. But underneath my siblings and I were physically and verbally abused.' His parents, he says, were radicalised in separate ways. In 2012 his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and had surgery on the NHS to remove a tumour, but now credits her survival to Gerson therapy. 'I've called her a 'queen bee' type of conspiracy theorist — whereas my father, Faraz, is just a brainwashed follower,' says Sebastian. • Will Lloyd: You can't counter Conspiracy Britain with facts 'There are different openings — what I call pipelines — that lead people down the rabbit hole,' he adds. 'Some people get sucked in by medicine; others immigration. Eventually these pipelines converge at the total conspiracy theory world-view.' He points out that conspiracy narratives bear a striking resemblance to Christian theology. 'There's a battle between light and dark,' he says. 'There's going to be a judgment day. The believers are going to be rewarded and the unbelievers are going to perish.' Any attempts to rebut these claims merely reinforces the conspiracy theorists' conviction. 'They create a vicious cycle,' Sebastian says. 'As the world around disagrees with them, they end up believing in the conspiracy theory more.' Sebastian recalls being forced to take supplements as a child. 'We were given concoctions or iodine supplements. We were raised vegetarian, but not because of it being healthier — we were told that meat-eaters were murderers. Our diet was a way of controlling us.' The Shemirani children lived with a permanent sense of anxiety. 'Our parents told us that the Rothchilds are going to send people to come and kill us,' Sebastian recalls. 'I remember sitting in my bedroom, around the age of ten, and being terrified. I remember drawing a map of an escape plan from my house.' By his mid-teens, Sebastian was starting to question his family life. At 16, he applied independently with no support from his parents — and won — a scholarship to Eton. 'I wanted to challenge myself and break away from my family,' he says. While boarding at Eton, Sebastian started to distance himself from his parents' beliefs. 'I still had this conspiracy theory mindset. It took a long way for that to work its way out of my system,' he says. Just as he was reaching the final stages of cutting off his mother, he recalls receiving a birthday postcard from her. 'I was crying and I remember thinking, I don't want your money, I want you to love me,' he says. Now, as an adult, Sebastian says he feels 'incredibly guilty' that he did not try and 'rescue' his siblings. 'I was so concerned with having escaped that I pushed them out of my mind. I blame myself a lot, because I didn't have the means to help them escape.' Paloma also left home, and in 2019 began to study Portuguese and Spanish at Cambridge. She was, says Sebastian, very funny. 'She loved to do characters from movies, TV shows — like Dr Zoidberg from Futurama. She loved to make clothes, Spanish literature, and she was very stubborn and strong willed. Her stubbornness is in part what killed her.' Paloma kept up many of her parents' beliefs at university: for example, refusing to wear sunscreen because she thought it would cause cancer. She was also unvaccinated, Sebastian says, because otherwise their mother would not have allowed her back into the family home. 'Me and my brother never wanted anything to do with Kay,' he says. 'My sisters had a much more malicious brainwashing.' Paloma graduated from university in July 2023 and briefly moved back in with her mother. Messages sent to her long-term boyfriend, Ander Harris, at the time show she had several arguments with her mother. She eventually moved into a flat and found a job with a yachting company. It was in autumn 2023 that Paloma started to experience chest pains. She went to A&E and later had a scan. She was in Sweden with Harris in December 2023 when she was told to fly back to the UK and come straight to Maidstone hospital to discuss her diagnosis: diffuse large B cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She was told that with a course of chemotherapy, her prognosis looked good. She called her mother — and then refused the course of treatment. Kate Shemirani messaged Harris, telling him she must not sign her consent to treatment. Paloma told Harris she was going back to live with her mother and promised to get another scan in six weeks. It never happened. 'That shows you the scale of the brainwashing,' Sebastian says. He spoke to his sister over FaceTime a couple of days after hearing the news. 'Paloma held the camera up and I froze, because my mother and father were both behind her. I said a couple of words then ended the call. I knew that Paloma was a dead woman walking.' While at home with her mother, Sebastian believes that Paloma was controlled by her. Several attempts were made by hospital staff, friends and family to talk Paloma around to chemotherapy. Calls and messages from Paloma to family and friends became less frequent. 'As my sister was dying, one day my mother decided, 'I can see that your phone is killing you because the [electromagnetic field] radiation is making your face red'. After that date she wasn't allowed to talk to me or my brother on the phone,' Sebastian says. Gabriel contacted social services in February this year with adult safeguarding concerns, but was frustrated by what he saw as a lack of progress. • Libby Purves: Where is the law when real threats appear? In March, Paloma split up with Harris. Also around this time, Paloma spoke to a friend to tell them she had found another lump in her armpit. Gabriel, her twin, started a legal case for Paloma to be independently assessed by a doctor. In August Gabriel received a call from his lawyer telling him the case was being dropped: Paloma had died a week earlier following a cardiac arrest. Their mother organised a funeral for Paloma, the details of which were kept secret. 'As far as we know, Kay had Paloma cremated and scattered the ashes and won't tell us where,' Sebastian says. 'Even in death, Kay wants to control Paloma.' Kate and Dr Faramarz Shemirani were approached for comment and in a previous statement said: 'Our daughter died following a chain of gross medical failings, breaches of consent law, falsified medical records and reckless emergency drug use that violated every protocol for her age, weight and clinical presentation …' They rejected any suggestion that they influenced or endangered Paloma's life, and said she was never coerced or radicalised. In the year since Paloma died, Sebastian says that he has not had a single full night's sleep. He is racked with guilt. 'I just wish that I'd got to her first and said, 'Come and stay with me, I'll look after you.'' He says that his sister should not have contacted their mother initally, 'but that puts too much agency on her. It's not fair to say to somebody, 'You're 22 now, you can make your own decisions.' It's missing out on 18 years of brainwashing.' Kate Shemirani has appeared on several podcasts talking about Paloma's death, saying she was 'murdered' by NHS doctors and nurses. She maintains that Paloma did not have cancer. Sebastian, meanwhile, has participated in two BBC documentaries, an episode of Panorama entitled Cancer Conspiracy Theories: Why Did Our Sister Die? and a podcast, Marianna in Conspiracyland, which highlights the dangers of conspiracy theories. Messages sent by Paloma in the last weeks of her life show that Paloma knew her condition was worsening. 'In the last weeks of her life, Kay was telling Paloma that she was going to die and … it was her own fault.' He falters. 'It is very hard to talk about.' With conspiracy theories multiplying online, Sebastian worries that others may suffer as Paloma did unless the law is changed to offer more protection. 'I don't think I'll ever fully process all of this,' Sebastian says. 'I blame myself not only for my sister's death, but the deaths of the people that are going to happen as a result of my mother still being free to do what she does.'
Daily Mirror
3 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Conspiracy theorist ex-nurse campaigning to free baby killer Lucy Letby
Kate Shemirani, who was last week slammed by her children Gabriel and Sebastian who say she convinced their sick sister to refuse chemo, thinks the former neonatal nurse is innocent A shamed anti-vaxxer former nurse, who was accused by her sons of causing her daughter's cancer death is campaigning to free Lucy Letby. Kate Shemirani was last week slammed by her children Gabriel and Sebastian who say she convinced their sick sister, Paloma, to refuse chemotherapy. The brothers told how medics gave Paloma, 23, a high chance of surviving her cancer diagnosis with treatment but their mum made her opt for alternative therapies. We can now reveal Shemirani, 60, regularly airs her views on controversial podcast The Sons of Liberty, saying fellow ex-NHS nurse Letby was 'railroaded' and is 'a poor woman'. In an episode titled No Nurse In The UK Or US Is Safe Anymore After Lucy Letby, she says: 'What we have seen is a Christian, single woman tried by the press. It is horrific to watch. "All of the agencies that you think are there to protect you are there to harm you and to make you sick. Everything is an inversion – the devil comes to lie, cheat, steal and kill.' Shemirani also hosted leading Letby cam-paigner Professor Richard Gill on her TNT radio show. It comes a week after prosecutors said they were considering more charges against Letby. The former neo-natal nurse is serving a whole life term after being convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Shemirani found fame in the pandemic for touting conspiracy theories on social media. She was struck off the nursing register in 2021 after claiming Covid was a hoax and vaccines were a conspiracy to kill people. Shemirani, who calls herself the Natural Nurse, told her daughter to refuse chemo when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Doctors told Paloma, a Cambridge graduate, she had an 80% chance of recovery with chemo but she died last year. Her brother Sebastian said she had 'passed away as a direct consequence of my mum's actions and beliefs and I don't want anyone else to go through the same pain or loss that I have'. Shemirani, who we approached for comment, blames 'medical interventions given without confirmed diagnosis or lawful consent' for her death. Letby, 35, is seeking to overturn her convictions at the Criminal Cases Review Commission, having lost two challenges at the Court of Appeal. Her case was boosted in February when an international panel of 14 medical experts who reviewed the case said there was no evidence of crime. But the Crown Prosecution Service says it has received intelligence from police investigating other incidents. It follows the arrest of three former Chester hospital bosses on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Public support for resident doctors' strikes collapses ahead of fresh industrial action
Public support for strikes by resident doctors has collapsed, with barely one in four voters now backing their campaign of industrial action, according to the latest polling, which reveals the deepening unpopularity of further NHS strikes. Previously strong approval by voters for strikes by junior doctors – as resident doctors were known until last year – has halved from 52% a year ago to just 26%. The fall may be linked to the fact that resident doctors in England got a 22% salary uplift from the Labour government soon after it took power in July 2024 but now want another 29% – spread over several years – to restore the real-terms value of their pay to what it was in 2008. The new polling by Ipsos, seen exclusively with the Guardian, will increase pressure on Wes Streeting, the health secretary, to reach a compromise with the British Medical Association (BMA) before a planned five-day walkout by tens of thousands of resident doctors on 25 July. Two in five (41%) of British adults oppose the strikes and 24% are neutral. Slightly more Labour voters (35%) back the doctors' action than oppose it (32%), with 24% neutral. 'If resident doctors do take strike action this summer, it will be the first time for some years that they go on industrial action without broad-based support from the public, including from Labour voters,' said Gideon Skinner, Ipsos's senior director of UK politics. The survey findings also contain bad news for Streeting and Keir Starmer, the prime minister. More than two in five people (43%) think the government is doing a bad job at negotiating with the trade unions. An increase of 7% since Ipsos asked that question last October and almost twice as many as those who thought that (23%) last August. 'Although there is increasing criticism of the way the Labour government is handling negotiations with unions, Labour is not yet receiving the negative ratings that Rishi Sunak's government saw [when 60% disapproved of its handling of union pay claims], while public perceptions towards the wider picture of public finances are also likely to be playing a part,' Skinner added. A separate new poll by YouGov reported by the Times found that 36% of voters support the doctors' strikes while 49% are opposed. When the Guardian interviewed the new BMA leader, Dr Tom Dolphin, last Wednesday, before Ipsos's findings emerged, he acknowledged that public support had fallen and that voters 'will wonder' why more strikes are looming. 'Doctors have been hugely grateful to the public for their support the whole way through this dispute but I completely understand how people might be feeling now, although there are plenty who do still support us. 'No one likes to have their lives and routines disrupted and particularly when it comes to health and wellbeing, we know people can feel worried. 'The public will remember what the last round of strikes meant for them and their families and now they've seen resident doctors getting a pay rise, people will wonder why it's happening all over again. The reason why is that the [22%] pay rise was only part of the journey to restoring the value of our pay that we're campaigning for.' But people would understand why resident doctors were pursuing such a large increase and said media coverage of it was encouraging 'jealousy', he added. Asked how seeking a 29% pay rise soon after getting a 22% uplift looks to the public, Dolphin said: 'I think the public should expect their doctors to be valued properly. I think if you explain to people, when we do explain to people in individual conversations about: 'What would you do if you had had a 30% pay cut? What would you feel about it? How would you react?', people do understand [the BMA seeking] that [further large rise]. 'Fundamentally, when you talk to people about the unfairness of that and that loss of value, people get it. They understand and they would do the same if they could to restore that value.' Another recent poll, by the Good Growth Foundation, found that even fewer voters endorse the resident doctors walkouts – 23% – than the 26% identified by Ipsos. Ipsos interviewed a representative online sample of 1,023 adults aged 18 to 75 across Great Britain on Wednesday and Thursday, just after news of the five-day strike emerged. Wes Streeting said: 'Public support for strikes has collapsed, following the 28.9% pay rise resident doctors have received thanks to this government. Patients are begging resident doctors not to walk out on them. 'Instead of rushing down this unreasonable path, the BMA need to pause and think about the real risk of people losing trust in doctors and the damage that would do to our NHS and the entire medical profession. 'My plea continues to be for the BMA to listen to the public on this, and the majority of resident doctors who did not vote for these strikes. Call off these unnecessary and unfair strikes, work with the government to improve working conditions for resident doctors, and let's keep rebuilding our NHS.'
