Mum’s anti-chemotherapy views influenced Paloma Shemirani’s death

A high-profile conspiracy theorist influenced her daughter to reject chemotherapy in favour of alternative treatments, which ultimately led to her death, a coroner has ruled.

Paloma Shemirani, from Uckfield in East Sussex, died in July last year – seven months after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Ms Shemirani, 23, had declined chemotherapy in favour of juices and coffee enemas advocated for by her mother, Kate Shemirani, a former nurse who was struck off for her anti-vaccination views.

Coroner Catherine Wood said at Kent and Medway Coroners Court on Thursday: “The influence that was brought to bear on Paloma… did contribute more than minimally to her death.”

After her diagnosis in December 2023, Ms Shemirani went to live with her mother and began having five coffee enemas a day, according to her brothers.

In July 2024, she collapsed at home and was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, where she died five days later.

An osteopath who saw Ms Shemirani on the morning she collapsed told the inquest he had “never seen” a lymphoid mass like hers in 43 years of practice.

Ms Wood said Ms Shemirani died from the progression of a disease which was curable but not treated.

She added that treatment would have given Ms Shemirani an 80% chance of a complete cure.

The Cambridge graduate had initially consented to treatment, the coroner said, adding that “doubts about consent only surfaced after Mrs Shemirani became involved”.

The coroner said Ms Shemirani was being influenced by her own beliefs, her mother’s, her father’s and by those of a family friend – all who advocated the alternative treatment she used.

“I found Mrs Shemirani’s care of her daughter incomprehensible but not unlawful killing,” Ms Wood said.

“It seems that if Paloma had been supported and encouraged to accept her diagnosis and considered chemotherapy with an open mind she probably would have followed that course.”

Ms Shemirani’s mother tried to blame medical staff for her daughter’s death and has previously labelled chemotherapy as “mustard gas”.

Staff at Maidstone Hospital, where Ms Shemirani was diagnosed, the Royal Sussex County Hospital and paramedics all acted appropriately, the inquest found.

Neither her mother or her father – non-medical doctor Faramarz Shemirani – attended the conclusion of the inquest.

Her brothers, Gabriel and Sebastian Shemirani, did attend and said the state had “failed” by not classing their sister’s death as an unlawful killing, despite recognising a breach in their mother’s duty of care.

Gabriel told the inquest: “I blame my mother entirely for my sister’s death”, adding she had been “obstructing” his sister from receiving treatment.

The coroner noted the “striking” family dysfunction, which she said had been “on display very publicly” during the inquest.

“The dynamics within the immediate family were complicated and dysfunctional at the time of Paloma’s death,” she said.