Latest news with #SebastianShemirani
Times
12-07-2025
- Health
- 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.'
Times
23-06-2025
- Health
- Times
Woman died of cancer after ‘falling for mother's conspiracy theories'
The sons of the notorious conspiracy theorist Kate Shemirani have accused the former nurse of causing their sister's death through her opposition to traditional cancer treatment. An inquest will open next month into the death of 23-year-old Paloma Shemirani, who was diagnosed with treatable non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, in 2023 and died months later after refusing chemotherapy. Her older brother Sebastian Shemirani has claimed that the Cambridge graduate's death was influenced by his mother, who was a nurse before she was struck off in 2021 for sharing anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown content to millions on social media. Kate Shemirani is a prominent proponent of conspiracy theories GUY CORBISHLEY/ALAMY 'My sister has passed away as a direct consequence of my mum's actions and beliefs,' he told the BBC's Panorama. 'And I don't want anyone else to go through the same pain or loss that I have'.
BBC News
23-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Our sister died because of our mum's cancer conspiracy theories, say brothers
Gabriel and Sebastian Shemirani watched with concern as their mother Kate rose to notoriety during the pandemic, eventually getting struck off as a nurse for promoting misinformation about their sister Paloma was diagnosed with cancer. Doctors told her she had a high chance of survival with chemotherapy. But in 2024, seven months later, she died - having refused the brothers blame their mother's anti-medicine conspiracy theories for Paloma's death at 23 - as cancer doctors tell BBC Panorama these beliefs are becoming more Shemirani has not responded directly to the allegations we raised, but she has publicly blamed the NHS for her daughter's death. She and her ex-husband, Paloma's father Faramarz Shemirani, wrote to us saying they have evidence "Paloma died as a result of medical interventions given without confirmed diagnosis or lawful consent". The BBC has seen no evidence to substantiate these elder brother Sebastian says: "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."Both brothers say they contacted me about Paloma in the hope they could prevent other deaths, and they believe social media companies should take stronger action against medical misinformation - which the BBC has found is being actively recommended on several major sites."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," says Panorama and BBC Radio 4's Marianna in Conspiracyland 2 podcast, I pieced together how this young Cambridge graduate came to refuse treatment that might have saved her life, following an online trail and interviewing people close to I found that conspiracy theory influencers such as Kate Shemirani are sharing once-fringe anti-medicine views to millions - which can leave vulnerable people at risk of serious harm. It is getting harder to fight medical misinformation because of the prominence of figures such as Robert F Kennedy Jr, who have previously expressed unscientific views - says oncologist Dr Tom Roques, vice-president of the Royal College of Radiologists, which also represents cancer you have a US health and human services secretary "who actively promotes views like the link between vaccines and autism that have been debunked years ago, then that makes it much easier for other people to peddle false views," he says."I think the risk is that more harmful alternative treatments are getting more mainstream. That may do people more active harm."Since becoming Health and Human Services Secretary, Mr Kennedy has said he is not anti-vaccine, and that he just supports more safety tests. 'Conspiracy theories on the school run' Paloma and her twin Gabriel, along with Sebastian and their younger sister, grew up in the small Sussex town of Uckfield, where they were exposed to conspiracy theories at home, her brothers "soundtrack" to their school runs, Gabriel says, was conspiracy theorist Alex Jones talking about how the Sandy Hook school shooting was staged or 9/11 "was an inside job". The brothers say it was their father who first got into conspiracy theories, which piqued their mother's interest. The children absorbed outlandish ideas, including that the Royal Family were shape-shifting lizards, says Gabriel. "As a young child, you trust your parents. So you see that as a truth," he believes their mum used her ideas as a way of controlling them. On one occasion, Kate Shemirani decided wi-fi was dangerous and switched it off at home, he says, ignoring his pleas that he had to submit GCSE coursework. "That only fed the joy that she had for using her irrational system of beliefs to control me," he says. According to her sons, Kate Shemirani's anti-medicine views were accelerated in 2012, when she was diagnosed with breast though she had the tumour removed through surgery, she credits alternative therapies for her recovery. On social media, she uses the words "cancer-free" rather than "cured" - and says how she used juices and coffee absorbed some of these ideas, says Chantelle, one of her best friends from school. "Paloma spoke about her mum curing herself, and she believed sunscreen could cause cancer. I remember she used to get burned so badly at school," she their parents split up, Gabriel and Sebastian became estranged from their mother. But Paloma maintained contact with her, even when she went off to study at Cambridge in 2019. "Paloma's strategy was to appease, to be sweet, to try and win the love that she hadn't been granted earlier," says Paloma shared with her then-boyfriend Ander Harris - and which he has shared with the BBC - reveal a relationship with her mother that had moments of love and care, but also times when Paloma saw it as toxic and Christmas 2022, she told Ander her mother was blaming her for other children not coming home for Christmas. "I'm so so so sick of being abused", she wrote, suggesting with an expletive that this treatment happened all the time. Her mother kept coming into her room and "being mean", Paloma said in one message, adding that her mother had hit her. Paloma left for a friend's house. She later shared her parting message to her mother with Ander, saying it was "the last straw. You hurt me every time I let you in and I never ever will again. I'm beyond hurt".Back at university, Paloma seemed to be moving away from her mother's beliefs at times. Chantelle says she began eating meat and using fluoride toothpaste. But both Chantelle and Ander say she remained sceptical about the Covid-19 vaccine and refused to have it. 'A concern regarding parental influence' In late 2023, not long after graduating, Paloma began to have chest pains and breathing difficulties. She went to the suspected a tumour, but Ander says he and Paloma, "one of the smartest people I've ever met", were hopeful at first that it would turn out not to be malignant. Paloma made light of it, nicknaming the tumour "Maria the Lung Mass", he on 22 December, Paloma and Ander went to Maidstone Hospital where doctors gave her the diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Untreated, this type of cancer can be fatal, but doctors told Paloma she had an 80% chance of recovery if she had told her mother the news. Ander says Paloma still wanted her support, even though their relationship had recently been through a rough patch. Kate Shemirani said she would come to the hospital. Paloma was worried about seeing her, though, and spoke to medical staff about her concerns, her then-boyfriend seen by the BBC suggests Paloma's thinking could have been influenced by her mother during the two days she was an inpatient at Maidstone Shemirani texted Ander to say: "TELL PALOMA NOT TO SIGN [OR] VERBALLY CONSENT TO CHEMO OR ANY TREATMENT." Ander and his own mother, who was also there, raised concerns with hospital staff about Kate Shemirani's beliefs and her relationship with staff discussed safeguarding concerns about Paloma among themselves and wrote that they had "a concern regarding parental influence" on her. But they also thought that she did have the capacity to make her own advice, Paloma reached out to a former partner of Kate Shemirani called Patrick Vickers. Paloma had a good relationship with him, Ander says. He is also an alternative health Paloma asked him about the "80% chance of cure" the doctors had said chemotherapy would offer, Mr Vickers said that was "exaggerated". He encouraged her to start Gerson therapy and to maybe consider chemotherapy if her symptoms did not improve after six Vickers told us that any "assertions that I played a role in her [Paloma's] death are legally inaccurate". He also shared documents with the BBC in support of Gerson therapy involves a strict plant-based diet, along with juices, supplements and coffee enemas. Some people claim - without scientific evidence - it can be used to treat a range of cancers. Paloma was worried about the negative side effects of chemotherapy, Ander tells me, as it can cause fatigue, sickness, hair loss and affect fertility. Nursing staff spoke to Paloma about egg-freezing and wigs when she was the charity Cancer Research UK says Gerson therapy can also have severe side effects, including dehydration, inflammation of the bowel, and heart and lung some point during the two days in hospital, Ander says, Paloma made up her mind. She decided not to pursue chemotherapy - at least for the time being - and would try Gerson therapy to start 23 December, Kate Shemirani sent Ander a voice note giving him instructions to drive Paloma to her house, saying she had arranged doctors for her. She suggested Paloma's time with a friend she wanted to see should be limited on Christmas Day - and said in the message that they could "see her for maybe half an hour or whatever here, or they can do it on FaceTime".Ander says he felt he could not argue. Paloma "was in fight or flight and really just wanted to be taken care of and, you know, not have to make the hard decisions", he says. "Her mum kind of swooped in and took advantage of that." Promoting misinformation Kate Shemirani promotes ideas which she recommended to her daughter to a wider public online. A former NHS nurse in the 1980s, she calls herself "the Natural Nurse" on social her website, she sells apricot kernels for their "potential health benefits" along with nutritional supplements, and offers information and charges about £70 for an annual membership to her site, and charges patients - including those with cancer - £195 for a consultation and personalised 12-week social media she posts videos promoting her products and sometimes criticises "ill-informed people" for treating cancer with chemotherapy, or "pumping mustard gas into their veins" as she characterises the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, Kate Shemirani was one of many conspiracy theory influencers who found a wider audience. Her beliefs appeared to have evolved from alternative health ideas to sprawling anti-establishment conspiracy theories. She promoted the false ideas that the pandemic was a hoax, that vaccines were part of a plan to kill lots of people, and that doctors and nurses should be punished for their part in it 2021 a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel determined that Kate Shemirani should be struck off as a nurse for promoting misinformation about the pandemic. Several social media companies also suspended her profiles for promoting misinformation. "She went into obscurity," says once Elon Musk bought X in 2022, lots of conspiracy theory accounts were reinstated, including Kate Shemirani's. She was also reinstated on Facebook and she joined audience has grown again - in the past six months she has had her content viewed more than four and a half million times across the major social media sites. I have found dozens of comments on X where she encourages people to get in touch, including those with cancer. TikTok says it has now banned Kate Shemirani's account for violating medical misinformation policies. According to Meta, Instagram and Facebook do not allow harmful medical misinformation. X did not respond. Life support switched off Paloma continued on Gerson therapy. Some of her friends noticed how she became more and more one video call, Chantelle says, Paloma said she had a new lump in her armpit, and her mother had told her it meant that the cancer was going out of her body. "I knew she was really struggling," she says, adding that Paloma told her she had lost control of her bodily she says Paloma also said she felt pressured by doctors and friends to reconsider her decision to pursue alternative therapies on their own. Chantelle says she did not agree with the alternative therapy either, but wanted to be there for her had mentioned other people trying to change her mind and discussed "cutting them off", Chantelle adds. "I thought I don't want to be cut off especially when she's struggling like this."Over the months that they spoke on the phone, Chantelle says she noticed that Kate Shemirani was "taking very good care of Paloma". But she does not think Paloma would have made the same decisions without her mother."I don't think her ideology was strong enough to make those decisions is my personal belief. People have different opinions about these things, but I think her mum played a massive, massive role into it," Chantelle March 2024, Paloma ended her relationship with Ander. Other friends and family felt that Kate Shemirani was isolating Paloma from says he asked to meet Paloma not long after she was diagnosed but his sister said she could not go out because of the "bad air". Their mother had convinced her that the "damp air" would cause her to become more ill, he and Gabriel were so worried that Gabriel started a legal case. He was not arguing Paloma did not have capacity, but he wanted an assessment of the appropriate medical treatment for events overtook them and the case ended without a conclusion in July - because Paloma had died. Gabriel only learned of his sister's death several days afterwards, in a phone call from their lawyer. He had to break the news to his brother. "It's like being burnt alive and you feel the searing pain every time it comes out of your mouth," Gabriel says he blamed himself. "I haven't come to terms with that at all," he Ander heard, "I broke," he says. "I was just, like, screaming and crying at the top of my lungs."Paloma had suffered a heart attack caused by her tumour. She was taken to hospital, but after several days, her life support was switched inquest is due to begin next month to establish the circumstances surrounding Paloma's Shemirani has promoted a range of unproven theories on social media and fringe political podcasts about how she believes Paloma was murdered by medical staff - and that this was followed by a cover up. The BBC has not seen evidence to support these death was devastating for her family and loved ones. But for Sebastian and Gabriel, it is also a warning of the potential consequences for people who believe anti-medicine conspiracy theories like their mother's.
