Courts have been left completely shocked as the mother of a woman who died after refusing cancer treatment undergoes questioning.
Paloma Shemirani died at the age of 23 in July 2024 after she refused to undergo treatment for her diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma seven months prior to her death.
Now her mother, Kate Shermirani, who is a high-profile conspiracy theorist, has been called in for questioning at the inquest looking into Paloma’s death.
The court heard how Kate had previously been struck off from her position as a nurse after spreading anti-medicine Covid misinformation.
Advert
Kate has denied that she influenced her daughter into refusing chemotherapy treatment as she said: “It doesn’t matter what my view was, it was what Paloma wanted to do.”
When asked about her thoughts on chemotherapy, Kate replied: “Why is this about me and my opinions? Is it a witch hunt?”
She revealed to the court that she had asked Paloma to give her all of her medical notes and results in order to send them to doctors they knew in Mexico and Iran.
However, Kate claimed she did not know if the records were ever sent for a second opinion ‘because they were Paloma's records and she was 22 - an adult’.
At one point Kate was questioned by Alison Hewitt, counsel at the inquest, who asked: “It is the case, isn't it, that you have expressed publicly views which are contrary to chemotherapy... you consider chemotherapy is a dangerous and toxic process and one that you wouldn't advise someone suffering cancer undergoes?”
In response, Kate said: “In all my public appearances I say people should get all the information and then decide.”
The former nurse was then pushed to answer whether she had previously described chemotherapy as ‘mustard gas’, to which she replied: “This is not relevant. You’re making slanderous accusations. People should be able to choose.”
Kate described how she’d had a tumour removed through surgery, despite having said online that it was alternative therapies such as juices and coffee enemas that helped her to become ‘cancer-free’.
Earlier on in the hearing, Kate has explained that Paloma was using alternative remedies such as juices, nutrition and spiritual support to treat her cancer, and claimed that a lot of symptoms had vanished.
However, a scan taken after her death revealed a large mass located in her chest and neck.
Dr Peter Anderson, who saw Paloma at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, said that the mass was blocking her airways and affecting major blood vessels.
Anderson explained that either could have caused the cardiac arrest that took her life.
The inquest continues.