Five stories in Peterborough you might have missed this week
Call for 'Benedict's Law' to protect children with allergies
The family of a five-year-old boy who died from a severe allergic reaction at school are calling for a new law to help keep children safe.Benedict Blythe died after accidental exposure to an allergen - cow's milk protein - at Barnack Primary School in December 2021.An inquest jury found the school did not follow all the measures in place to prevent the fatal anaphylactic reaction - and there were risks of contamination with other milk and delays in administering an adrenalin pen.
Police walk between football grounds for Millie, 11
A group of police officers have covered a 95-mile (150km) route between football stadiums to raise money for an 11-year-old girl diagnosed with osteosarcoma.Millie was diagnosed with a form of bone cancer last year and had to have her left leg amputated above the knee. Her parents are trying to buy a new artificial leg for her.A group of 60 people walked from Peterborough United's ground on London Road to the home of Millie's favourite team Chelsea FC, at Stamford Bridge, west London.
Kitten litter found by city litter pickers
Volunteer litter pickers got more than they bargained for when they found a box with six kittens inside.The tiny creatures were discovered abandoned and alone on a path near Peterborough's Embankment area on Thursday by Peterborough Litter Wombles.The group immediately called a local cat rescue charity which came along to collect them.
'We have many bus stops, but zero buses'
People have voiced concerns that recently installed bus stops around their village will become redundant when a bus service ends next month.Bury, near Ramsey, currently has three bus stops for the 31 bus route, operated by Stagecoach, which connects the village with Ramsey, Whittlesey and Peterborough.The full service will stop running in Bury on 31 August, but the 31 route will continue to serve Whittlesey and Peterborough, Stagecoach said."Bury will be the place with so many bus stops, but zero buses servicing it," said 16-year-old student Harriet Copley, who will be attending college in Peterborough from September.
Community space to open in football club's old shop
Plans to open a new community space in Peterborough United's former club shop have been approved.It would lead to meetings, social events, and activities including yoga, being held next to the Weston Homes Stadium entrance.
The week in politics
Plans for a £15m city regeneration project to refurbish a library and build a food hall and business incubator have moved a step closer.Peterborough City Council has been asked to approve the award of construction contracts for a project known as The Vine.The council originally wanted to use the former TK Maxx building in Bridge Street before deciding this was unviable. Separately, that building is being put out to market.
Meanwhile, a report revealed that safety measures to protect people at Peterborough Town Hall could cost £900,000. It comes after reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found on the second floor of the civic building last year. Finally, Peterborough City Council's leader Dennis Jones said the authority would be reviewing all organisations and companies benefitting from rent and rate relief. It came after it was revealed a community radio station set up by former council leader Wayne Fitzgerald had been benefitting from the relief for nine years. He said the arrangement was reviewed annually by the council and that the station provided community value.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE SNP MSP breaks ranks to call for NHS Fife boss Carol Potter and her board to RESIGN over gender storm
A Nationalist MSP has broken party ranks to urge NHS Fife bosses to quit over their handling of a transgender legal battle. Michelle Thomson last night hit out at the health board as it was revealed the dispute with nurse Sandie Peggie had so far cost taxpayers £220,500. The Falkirk East MSP is the first serving SNP politician to condemn NHS Fife's handling of the landmark tribunal relating to single-sex spaces. She accused the board – headed by chief executive Carol Potter, who earns at least £147,700 a year – of a seemingly 'breathtaking disregard for their duties of good governance and candour'. And the MSP raised concerns about the 'direct, and indirect cost to the public purse... at a time when the wider NHS is struggling'. Heaping pressure on Health Secretary Neil Gray to step in, Ms Thomson said she would be 'disappointed' if he continued to insist he had confidence in the board. Her intervention follows revelations last week that the health board had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds defending itself and trans medic Dr Beth Upton against a claim brought by Mrs Peggie. The 50-year-old A&E nurse has taken her case to an employment tribunal after being suspended from her job. NHS Fife chiefs took action against her after she challenged the presence of Dr Upton, born a biological male, in the female changing rooms at Kirkcaldy's Victoria Hospital. The huge costs associated with the ongoing tribunal were revealed on Wednesday following a months-long transparency battle between MailOnline and the health board. However, those close to the case said the true legal bill could climb to around £1 million once the tribunal, which continues this week, concludes. That would likely include extra internal legal costs and fees for outside counsel for NHS Fife, which is using an expensive English-based KC to defend their position, as well as the claimant Sandie Peggie's legal fees, which can later be requested from the health board. The case started before April's Supreme Court ruling clarified that the definition of a woman under the Equality Act 2010 is based on biological sex, meaning trans women have no automatic right to access female-only spaces. Last night Ms Thomson said: 'It cannot just be me who has considered what on earth is going on in the board of NHS Fife. 'The Supreme Court judgement was extremely clear, and so to then proceed with the remainder of the Peggie hearing when it can only result in abject failure for them seems to have breathtaking disregard for their duties of good governance and candour.' She added: 'The cost to the public purse will be significant at a time when the wider NHS is struggling. 'It's clear to me that all of the board must consider their position'. She added she would be 'extremely surprised and disappointed' if My Gray continued to claim he had confidence in NHS Fife and its leadership. Last week NHS Fife conceded that as of May 31, 2025, a total of £220,465.93 had been spent on legal costs relating to the tribunal. It was noted that the sum could pay for nine nursing assistant starting salaries of £23,362 or around 40 hip replacements. The Scottish Government last night said the Health Secretary continues to have confidence in NHS Fife and its leadership.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Militant union bosses urge doctors not to tell their hospitals if they are striking – sparking fears for patient safety
MILITANT union bosses are telling doctors they do NOT have to alert their NHS trust if they are planning to strike - sparking fears for patient safety. It will make it harder for trusts to plan cover to keep hospitals running. 7 7 7 Resident doctors, formerly known as junior, are walking out for five days at the end of July as they demand a 29 per cent pay rise. Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, co-leader of the British Medical Association's resident doctors committee, accused trusts of trying to 'deceive' docs into revealing strike plans. He blasted a cancer trust which told staff it was a mandatory requirement to report action to their team each day of the strike. 'This is absolutely unacceptable,' he wrote on X. 'You do NOT have a legal responsibility to disclose whether you are striking. 'Trusts will attempt to deceive or compel you to tell them. If they do, let a BMA rep know.' 7 Legally union members do not have to tell their employer if they are going to strike. But sources said most resident doctors told their trusts whether they intended to strike - which helped hospitals to secure enough staff to keep running. One insider said: 'It shows they don't give a damn about patient safety.' Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital bosses, said: 'Given the huge disruption and impact on patient care caused by strikes it is good practice for staff to make their intentions known. 'That way hospitals plan with the best information so that fewer patients have their care cancelled and that reduces the amount of harm that the strikes will cause.' Shadow health secretary Edward Argar said: 'This is potentially a serious threat to patient safety. 'It's shocking that we don't even know how many doctors will walk out, and hospitals are being left in the dark. 'That kind of chaos puts patients and lives at risk. These strikes are irresponsible, unnecessary and wrong.' 7 One of Britain's most loved TV doctors Lord Robert Winston resigned from the union this week slamming their "highly dangerous" strikes. The 84-year-old professor, who pioneered IVF treatments in the UK, quit after more than 60 years as a member of the BMA. The last round of doctors' strikes cost the NHS £1.7 billion and led to 1.5 million cancellations. Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the Commons the average first-year doctor earns £43,275 - 'significantly more than the average full-time worker in this country'. 7 7 Some resident doctors on a 40-hour week, including a full 'on-call' rota, can earn more than £100,000 a year, according to analysis by the Telegraph. A BMA spokesperson said: 'Doctors intending to take strike action are under no obligation to inform their employers of those intentions. But with nine out of 10 of our members who voted in the ballot, voting in support of strike action, it is reasonable they will participate in the strikes if they are due to be working and trusts should plan accordingly.'
Times
3 hours 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.'
