Latest news with #PalomaShemirani
Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'I pray my mother burns in hell': These words seem unthinkable from a son. But read the unfathomable things 'abusive monster' Kate did to his beautiful cancer-struck sister before you judge his anguish
Just days before she lost her young life to cancer, 23-year-old Paloma Shemirani turned to social media to showcase the healthy foods and sweat therapies she believed were curing her. Having turned down the chemotherapy which offered a high chance of surviving her non-Hodgkin lymphoma, this beautiful, brilliant Cambridge graduate had embraced a 'natural' regime of juices, coffee enemas and saunas – all carefully administered at home by her mother, Britain's most notorious conspiracy theorist Kate Shemirani.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Cambridge graduate's boyfriend says she turned down chemo and died of cancer after anti-vaxx mother bombarded her with 'whirlwind of fake information'
The boyfriend of a brilliant Cambridge graduate who died of cancer after refusing conventional medical treatment has told how he believes her conspiracy theorist mother misled her with a 'whirlwind of fake information'. Paloma Shemirani died after turning down chemotherapy, which would have given her an 80 percent chance of survival, and instead took ineffectual enemas and juices, her boyfriend Ander Harris says. Ander believes his girlfriend, who was also a beauty queen, was inappropriately influenced against conventional medicine by her mother, notorious anti-vaxxer Kate Shemirani. Ander made the comments on the BBC 's Panorama in which Paloma's brothers, Gabriel and Sebastian Shemirani, also claimed their mother's conspiracy theories were heavily linked to their sister's death from blood cancer last year. Paloma's mother, Ms Shemirani, who calls herself a 'nurse' despite being banned from the profession for sharing misinformation online, has since furiously fired back at her sons' claims that she is responsible for her death. In a post on X, she claims her daughter was 'gaslit' by doctors and has even suggested she was experimented on by medics, accusing doctors of breaching the Nuremberg Code drawn up in 1947 to control the safety of medical experiments. It was late 2023, not long after graduating from Cambridge University, when Paloma, 23, started suffering chest pains and breathing difficulties. Ander accompanied her to Maidstone Hospital on December 22 that year and she was later given the diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which left untreated can be fatal but with chemotherapy she was likely to survive. Recalling the moment that Paloma revealed the diagnosis to him, he told the BBC: 'I remember when she called me at three in the morning, woke me up in bed, and she was just crying. 'And she said 'There's a mass in my chest that they found on an X-ray'. 'Obviously I was terrified. Cancer was one of Paloma's biggest worries in the whole world.' Though their relationship had previously been strained, Paloma still craved the support of her mother, Ander said - and she soon turned up at the hospital and began to exert control over Paloma. Ander, 23, said that everything was 'up in the air' for Paloma when she was first diagnosed and 'she wanted to assess all her [medical] options'. But he continued: 'Kate came in and started asking for her blood work and everything. She didn't ask Paloma's permission, she said it and insisted on it and the nurses kind of looked over at Paloma (as if to ask) 'are you ok with this? She was like, you know, 'yeah sure'… (she was) defeated.' Panorma's Cancer Conspiracy Theories: Why Did Our Sister Die? - screened on Monday night - claimed Shemirani texted Ander to say: 'TELL PALOMA NOT TO SIGN [OR] VERBALLY CONSENT TO CHEMO OR ANY TREATMENT.' He raised safeguarding concerns with medical staff who he says were also worried about parental influence but thought Paloma had the capacity to make her own decisions. Panorama's Cancer Conspiracy Theories show claimed Paloma's mother, Kate Shemirani, text Ander the above message Asked whether his former girlfriend was able to make informed decisions, Ander replied: 'No not at all, she was in fight or flight and really just wanted to be taken care of and not have to make the hard decisions. 'Her mum kind of swooped in and I could see how much she was torn and it was just this whirlwind of fake information and she didn't know up from down.' Paloma did not agree to chemotherapy and instead reached out to a former partner of Shemirani's, who told her to consider Gerson therapy - a theory that a plant-based diet and routine of coffee enemas could treat cancer - that medical experts say has no evidential basis. Ander said: 'Paloma was having to spend hours and hours a day doing these enemas and juices on this very specific schedule and it took all her time. She had no energy at all. Of course she wasn't eating, had cancer…so it was awful for her.' Shemirani's influence over her daughter isolated her from other members of her family, her friends and boyfriend, the programme alleged. In March 2024, Paloma ended her relationship with Ander who said: 'We were kind of just pushed onto the outside. I could see it happening, I could see her being pulled away from me but I couldn't do anything about it.' Four months after splitting from Ander, Paloma suffered a fatal heart attack caused by her tumour. She had been taken to hospital in Brighton but after several days her life support was switched off. Ander said: 'I just broke. I was just screaming and crying at the top of my lungs. It was horrible. She has fired back furiously on what she labelled 'defamatory reporting' of her daughter's death, including a written statement seemingly signed by Paloma 'She could really, really make me laugh like no one else and that's what I miss most.' Paying tribute, he said: 'We were only 19 when we met. She made me want to be a better person. 'She was fantastic – one of the smartest people I've ever met. Always smiling, always happy she was the love of my life.' Paloma, who was pictured beaming with her two A* and A results after finishing school, had aspired to embark on a career in publishing but her life was cut tragically short due to, her brothers allege, undue influence from their mother, who rose to notoriety during the coronavirus pandemic. Shemirani continues to call herself a 'natural nurse' despite being struck off the UK's nursing register in 2021 for her extreme anti-medicine views. She made headlines during the pandemic when she used social media to claim Covid vaccines had 'a tiny bit of Satan' inside, the jabs caused cancer and contained material harvested from aborted foetuses. She also claimed the Covid virus was linked to the roll-out of 5G technology, and a political tool to gain access to and change people's DNA. She likened lockdown to the Holocaust and insisted dancing NHS nurses would 'stand trial for genocide', while also branding vaccination teams 'death squads'. Speaking to the Panorama her sons said they had been estranged from their mother but Paloma had kept in touch with her. They were not told of their sister's death until a few days afterwards via their lawyer who had been helping them with an assessment of the appropriate medical treatment for Paloma. Sebastian said: 'My sister has 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.' Gabriel - who was Paloma's twin-brother - added: 'I wasn't able to stop my sister from dying. But it would mean the world to me if I could make it that she wasn't just another in a long line of people that die in this way.' The brothers said that when growing up in the East Sussex town of Uckfield, the WIFI was switched off at home because it was deemed harmful and their mother and father, Faramarz Shemirani, would regale them with wild conspiracy theories like the Royal Family were shape-shifting lizards and that the Rothschilds are planning to go live on a space station after a mass genocide on earth. Shemirani- who was banned from Twitter but returned when it was rebranded as X under Elon Musk - is said to have briefly worked for the NHS as a nurse in the 1980s before working as a British Airways air hostess and model and administering Botox, fillers and peels while bringing up her children. She now shares her extremist views on the NHS, immigration and vaccines with her 81,000 followers - and conspiracy theories were a common soundtrack on the school run, including those perpetuated by misinformation spreader Alex Jones, who was declared bankrupt after being told to pay $1.5billion to victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in the US, which he claimed had been staged to tighten up American gun laws. In 2012, Shemirani was diagnosed with breast cancer - and had the tumour removed through surgery, undergoing a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery. But online, she appears to suggest she was healed following 'Gerson therapy' and by taking vitamin and mistletoe injections. 'I'm still here and thriving. You can shove your poison mustard gas where the sun doesn't shine you pimps and assassins,' she wrote on X earlier this year, in reference to chemotherapy. Shemirani's former partner has told the BBC that any 'assertions that I played a role in her death are legally inaccurate'. Shemirani herself declined to comment when approached by the MailOnline but has continued to post about her daughter's death on social media for the last year. She claims that the NHS killed her daughter 'in the name of medicine and cash for corpses', without evidence, and continues fundraising in her daughter's name for legal fees that she says will be used to challenge the NHS in court. Writing on X earlier this week, she said: 'When the time is ready we will put all of the documents in public but what I can say is that my daughter was given 12 times the dose of adrenaline and other drugs that did the same as the adrenaline. 'It destroyed her brain in front of us as it collapsed her circulation and the rest is just a cover-up.' In a document co-authored with her ex-husband, she said that Paloma's 'petite frame (was) subjected to excessive caused irreversible brain damage'. She also writes about Paloma on her website, where she sells branded vitamin supplements and offers one-to-one consultations for around £195, despite being banned from practising nursing in the UK. Calling yourself a nurse without good reason is not currently a criminal offence - but will change in the near future under government plans to make falsely identifying as a nurse a crime. Health secretary Wes Streeting said of the proposals: 'This new legislation will help crack down on bogus beauticians and conspiracy theorists masquerading as nurses, and those attempting to mislead patients.' In its announcement of the proposed legislation last month, the government directly alluded to Shemirani without naming her, referencing an incident in which she appeared to compare NHS bosses to the Nazis in 2021 , labelling her a 'bogus nurse'. Speaking at the anti-lockdown rally in question, she had referenced the Nuremberg Trials, in which seven physicians affiliated with the Nazis were put to death for their roles in the Holocaust and crimes against humanity. She told an anti-lockdown gathering: 'At the Nuremberg trials, the doctors and nurses, they stood trial, and they hung. If you are a doctor or a nurse, now is the time to get off that bus.' Police said at the time they were investigating the comments, with both London mayor Sadiq Khan and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemning her tirade. An inquest into Paloma's death is due to begin next month.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Anti-vaxxer mother hits back at claims she caused daughter's death
An anti-vaxxer mother has hit back at claims she caused her daughter's death from cancer. Paloma Shemirani died last year at the age of 23 after refusing chemotherapy, despite having been told by doctors she had a high chance of survival if she accepted the treatment. Her brothers Gabriel and Sebastian Shemirani blame their sister's death on the anti-medicine views of their mother, Kate Shemirani, for which she was struck off the nursing register in 2021. They said previously: 'My sister has 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.' But Mrs Shemirani has denied responsibility and insisted her daughter was never formally diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In a statement issued with Dr Faramarz Shemirani, her husband, she said: 'This is state-sponsored propaganda designed to silence the truth of what happened to our daughter and reframe a preventable death as parental misconduct – despite overwhelming legal, medical and forensic documentation to the contrary.' She added: 'Paloma was never 'coerced'. She was never 'radicalised'. She was a woman of conviction and clarity.' Ms Shemirani began to have chest pains and breathing difficulties not long after graduating in 2023. She and Ander Harris, her then-boyfriend, went to Maidstone Hospital, Kent, where doctors diagnosed her with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Medics told her she had an 80 per cent chance of recovering from the cancer, which can kill if left untreated, if she undertook chemotherapy. Mrs Shemirani texted her daughter's boyfriend to say he should tell her to refuse chemotherapy or any treatment, according to the BBC. Mrs Shemirani was an NHS nurse in the 1980s and calls herself 'the Natural Nurse' on social media. She rose to online prominence during the pandemic, where she claimed Covid was a hoax and that vaccines were part of a plan to kill many people. In some posts, she claimed treating cancer with chemotherapy was 'ill-informed' and akin to pouring mustard gas into people's veins. She sells apricot kernels for their 'potential health benefits' along with nutritional supplements, and offers information and advice on her website. She charges around £70 for an annual membership to her site, while patients – including those with cancer – pay £195 for a consultation and personalised 12-week programme. An inquest into Ms Shemirani's death will begin next month.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Notorious anti-vaxxer mother of Cambridge grad, 23, who died of cancer after refusing chemotherapy claims her daughter was being 'gaslit by doctors' and 'didn't have confirmed lymphoma diagnosis'
A conspiracy theorist who allegedly coerced her dying daughter into refusing cancer treatment has fired back furiously at her sons' claims that she is responsible for her death. Kate Shemirani, who rose to notoriety with rabid anti-vax rants in which she branded Covid vaccines as Satanic, has denied that daughter Paloma Shemirani was ever diagnosed with the blood cancer that killed her at the age of 23 in July last year. Paloma's brothers Gabriel and Sebastian explosively claimed earlier this week that their sister had been indoctrinated into refusing professional medical help for her non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The Cambridge graduate and beauty queen ultimately suffered a rapid deterioration in her health and suffered a heart attack a week before she died. Friends of Paloma had also claimed earlier this week that Kate had sought to cut her daughter off from her friends as her condition worsened - even as Paloma texted her boyfriend to claim that she was being 'abused' by her mother. But Ms Shemirani - who still calls herself a 'nurse' despite being banned from nursing for rabidly sharing misinformation online - has hit back at the claims online. In a post on X, she claims her daughter was 'gaslit' by doctors and has even suggested she was experimented on by medics, accusing doctors of breaching the Nuremberg Code drawn up in 1947 to control the safety of medical experiments. Do you know more about this story? Email: She wrote: 'Paloma was never "coerced." She was never "radicalised". She was a woman of conviction and clarity. 'Her voice has been preserved—signed, sealed, and submitted in her own hand—and will now be shared with the world. We will not allow our daughter's memory to be defamed, nor her death to be sanitised.' Paloma was diagnosed with cancer in 2023 and doctors had told her she had an 80 per cent chance of recovery if she underwent chemotherapy. Her then-boyfriend said he received a text from Kate in block capitals, warning: 'TELL PALOMA NOT TO SIGN IR (sic) VERBALLY CONSENT TO CHEMO OR ANY TREATMENT.' Paloma did not agree to chemotherapy - even as doctors expressed concern over her mother's overt influence - and instead reached out to a former partner of Kate's, who told her to consider Gerson therapy, which claims a plant-based diet and routine of coffee enemas could treat cancer. Established cancer charities and researchers say there is absolutely no proof that Gerson therapy can help with cancer treatment. However, Kate has today shared what appeared to be a sworn affidavit authored and signed by Paloma, seemingly dated April last year, in which the 23-year-old allegedly claimed to be a 'staunch advocate' for Gerson therapy. Bearing what appears to be Paloma's signature, it contains a denial that she was ever diagnosed with cancer and struck out the idea that she was being cut off from the world by her mother. 'I do NOT have a Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma b diagnosis. It is a differential diagnosis in which cancer could not be ruled out,' the statement reads. 'To suggest I am being isolated is ridiculous.' However, Gabriel and Sebastian have both indicated that they believe the document to have been written by their mother, and signed by Paloma under duress or in a state of reduced mental capacity. The pair - who have been estranged from their mother for years - both refer to her by her legal name of Kay. Sebastian told MailOnline today: 'When I read the statement, I read it in Kay's voice in my head - that's how obvious it is to me, as someone who escaped Kay's brainwashing, that it was written by Kay.' 'Kay wants you to believe that these are actually Paloma's words,' Gabriel said in a response on social media. The statement includes misinformation claiming that King Charles has opted for 'natural medicines and treatment for his own cancer diagnosis'. In reality, no details of the King's treatment for cancer have been shared publicly - though he has alluded to losing his sense of taste, a common side-effect of undergoing chemotherapy. Kate has further accused the NHS of being responsible for her daughter's death, without evidence. She has also accused doctors, coroners, lawyers and the media of suppressing 'medical negligence'. The brothers, along with some of Paloma's friends and a former boyfriend, went public earlier this week with their fears that the straight-A student had been coerced into refusing mainstream medical treatment by Kate. Speaking to the BBC's Panorama programme on Monday, Sebastian had said: 'My sister has 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.' Kate - who was banned from Twitter but returned when it was rebranded as X under Elon Musk - is said to have briefly worked for the NHS in the 1980s before working as a British Airways air hostess and model before administering Botox, fillers and peels while bringing up her children. Sebastian previously claimed his his childhood was 'hell' amid years of brainwashing, describing how he was left terrified aged 10 when Ms Shemirani told him 'the Rothschilds are planning to go live on a space station and how there's going to be this mass genocide'. This is a developing story - more to follow.
The Sun
4 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
Anti-vaxxer who ‘encouraged daughter to refuse chemo' defies belief – but toxic views are still spreading far and wide
WHAT kind of parent potentially sacrifices their child's health on the altar of their own, ill-informed beliefs? Step forward notorious conspiracy theorist Kate Shemirani, who stands accused by her two estranged sons of causing their sister's death by encouraging her to refuse chemotherapy. 8 8 Paloma Shemirani was diagnosed with 'treatable' non-Hodgkin lymphoma two years ago. But, despite being told she had an 80 per cent chance of recovery via chemo, she refused it and died just months later at the age of 23. Kate and husband Faramarz claim she 'died as a result of medical interventions' but now Paloma's brothers Sebastian and Gabriel have told BBC 's Panorama a different story. 'My sister has passed away as a direct consequence of my mum's actions and beliefs,' says Sebastian. Gabriel, who started legal action to try to ensure that Paloma got the right treatment while she was still alive, adds: 'I wasn't able to stop my sister from dying. "But it would mean the world to me if I could make it that she wasn't just another in a long line of people that die in this way.' To that end, the brothers are lobbying for social media companies to take stronger action against those who peddle medical misinformation. TikTok recently banned Kate Shemirani's profile. But she still has a sizeable social media following for her conspiracy theory views that her sons say started when her and her husband listened to recordings claiming that the US terror attack on 9/11 was staged. Then, in 2012 when Kate was diagnosed with breast cancer, she had the tumour removed through conventional surgery but credited alternative therapies for her recovery. Paloma's school friend Chantelle says: 'Paloma spoke about her mum curing herself and she believed sunscreen could cause cancer.' Son of anti-vax nurse being probed by cops for comparing NHS medics to Nazis slams 'arrogant' mum So when doctors found a mass in Paloma's lung, it perhaps explains why her mother's influence was so great that the young woman decided against conventional treatment. Indeed, Paloma's boyfriend Anders Harris alleges that, after visiting her daughter in hospital, Kate texted him to ask that he help prevent her from consenting to chemo. Kate, a former 'nurse' in a Botox clinic (injects neurotoxin but says no to vaccines? — go figure) was struck off in 2021 for sharing anti-vaccine and anti- lockdown content online. We're all adults and can agree with or ignore such content. But when a parent influences their child against the conventional medicine that could save their life, it defies belief. In the UK, if parents refuse medical treatment for a sick child (either through religious or other beliefs) and that decision puts them at risk, the law can intervene to act in the best interests of the minor and ensure the necessary treatment takes place. But Paloma was an adult clearly influenced by a mother who put her own beliefs before her daughter's best interests. And sadly, the law is a lot murkier and slower in clamping down on people like Kate Shemirani who, God forbid, charges cancer patients £195 for a consultation. WOMEN ON SIDE OF J.K. 8 SIR Stephen Fry has turned on 'friend of mine' JK Rowling, suggesting she's been 'radicalised' over trans issues and has 'very strong, difficult views' that, to him, make her 'a lost cause'. He was publicly backed by barrister Jolyon Maugham, who posted: 'Really creditable this . . . I've spoken to so many of JKR's once friends who now despair at her privately but won't do so publicly . . . ' The Harry Potter author responded to him with: 'It is a great mistake to assume that everyone who claims to have been a friend of mine was ever considered a friend by me.' Touché. As for her being a 'lost cause', this is not an opinion shared by the majority of women who believe she is simply standing up for the rights of biological females, including, as she puts it, 'being able to speak about our own bodies as we please'. And I'm afraid that Stephen and Jolyon's declarations come across as just another couple of entitled men telling women what they should be thinking and feeling. FAILING ON A.I. 8 TECHNOLOGY Secretary Peter Kyle was called a 'bit of a moron' by Sir Elton John on national television but says it's not the first time he's been described as such. Mr Kyle, who has acute dyslexia, says: 'The first person I ever recall calling me that word 'moron' was a teacher and that was in front of school friends. 'So I wouldn't say it hurt, but it was very humiliating.' Hmmm. Conflating a school bullying experience with Elton's comment seems disingenuous. It had nothing to do with his dyslexia and everything to do with the Government's failure to protect young creatives from having their content used for free by AI tech companies. SUCH A HARDY TARDI 8 AT first sight, I thought it was the latest Pixar creation for another Monsters Inc sequel. But no, turns out this, er, cute little creature is real and can be found in damp environments such as moss, lichen and wet leaves. It's called a tardigrade and, according to science author Alex Riley in his new book Super Natural: How Life Thrives in Impossible Places, it can endure the most brutal of conditions that would kill a human in seconds. Hot planet, cold planet, war, flood, famine, you name it – the 'water bear', or 'moss piglet' as it's known, can sustain the lot. Apparently, it can even withstand one of Rachel Reeves' unedited Budget announcements. LITTLE THREAT AT 90 TWO serving Metropolitan Police officers and one former one are to face a gross misconduct hearing after a 90-year-old woman with dementia was 'red-dotted' with a taser which thankfully wasn't discharged. But she was handcuffed and put in a spit hood after refusing to drop the 'kitchen utensils' she was brandishing at a carer in her South London home. A complaint has now been lodged by her family over use of force and alleged discrimination due to her age, race, sex and disability. The incident follows that of two officers who, despite a jury finding them unanimously not guilty, still face gross-misconduct proceedings over the use of a pepper spray and taser on a 92-year old amputee who had threatened staff with a butter knife at a care home in East Sussex. It later transpired that he was delirious as a result of a urinary tract infection. Look, the police do a tough job that many of us wouldn't dare sign up for. But common sense must surely dictate that an obviously distressed and delirious nonagenarian is going to present little to no threat to anyone? EVERY country has its 'pests' that patrol urban streets looking for scraps. 8 For the UK, it's mostly foxes and seagulls. In Australia, it's white ibis, otherwise known as 'bin chickens'. It's monkeys in Thailand and brown bears in Canada. And I'll never forget being in the Galapagos Islands and seeing large sea lions undulating their way along the street looking for food. Now there's been an exceptionally rare sighting of a pod of killer whales just five miles south of Plymouth. How long is it before we see Free Willy foraging in Asda's bins? RIFT-HEALING LIZ HAS THE EX FACTOR 8 I HAVE met Elizabeth Hurley several times and we once spent a weekend away together with mutual friends. During that trip, she taught me how to stand in photos, that the Mach 3 razor is a must for tackling armpit hair and spent some of her downtime looking for a new tractor for her farm. In other words, she's as uncomplicated and straightforward as they come. Which is perhaps why, after years of the Cyrus family not speaking following the demise of his 30-year marriage to her mum Trish, Miley and her father Billy Ray have seemingly reconciled after he started dating Elizabeth. Indeed, the four of them (the other attendee being Elizabeth's son Damian) went for a cosy dinner in London at the weekend. 'At first it's hard, because the little kid in you reacts before the adult in you can go, 'Yes, that's your dad, but that's just another person that deserves to be in his bliss and to be happy,' says 32- year-old Miley. Good for her. And well done Elizabeth, whose enduring friendships with her exes is also a testament to her admirable people skills.
