A high-profile conspiracy theorist whose daughter died from cancer after refusing chemotherapy organised her care when she left hospital, an inquest has heard.
Paloma Shemirani, from Uckfield in East Sussex, died aged 23 in July last year, seven months after receiving a cancer diagnosis of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
On Monday, the inquest in Maidstone into Paloma’s death heard from her mother, Kate Shemirani, a former nurse who was struck off for spreading anti-medicine Covid-19 misinformation.
Mrs Shemirani denies influencing her daughter’s decision to refuse chemotherapy, saying: “It doesn’t matter what my view was, it was what Paloma wanted to do.”
The inquest was played a voice note from Mrs Shemirani to her daughter’s boyfriend, where she told him to “put Paloma in a wheelchair to take her down to the car”.
The voice note was sent two or three days after Paloma had been diagnosed with cancer at Maidstone Hospital in December 2023.
Mrs Shemirani told him to listen her message “in private and away from Paloma’s ears” and that he had to drive Paloma away “very carefully without braking sharply”.
On Monday, she said she would need the “forensic data” before agreeing the voice note heard by the the court was from her, but added that whoever left the message gave “fantastic advice”.
She said she had not wanted Paloma to hear because she would have been frightened that she could be injured if her boyfriend drove too fast.
When asked about her views on chemotherapy, Mrs Shemirani said: “Why is this about me and my opinions? Is it a witch hunt?”
She told the court she had asked for Paloma, a Cambridge graduate, to have all her medical notes and results so she could have all the facts and get a second opinion from doctors they knew in Iran and Mexico.
Mrs Shemirani said she did not know if the records were ever sent to another oncologist or haematologist for the second opinion “because they were Paloma’s records and she was 22 – an adult”.
Alison Hewitt, counsel at the inquest, asked Mrs Shemirani: “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?”
Mrs Shemirani branded the question “slanderous” and “not true”, adding: “In all my public appearances I say people should get all the information and then decide.”
When pushed on whether she had described chemotherapy as mustard gas, she replied: “This is not relevant. You’re making slanderous accusations. People should be able to choose.”
Mrs Shemirani has said how she had a tumour removed through surgery.
Online, however, she credits alternative therapies for her recovery and says how she used a programme including juices and coffee enemas to become “cancer-free”.
The former nurse said she would have supported her daughter “physically and financially” whatever her decision on receiving treatment.
Earlier in the hearing, when describing the months leading up to her daughter’s death, Mrs Shemirani said Paloma had chosen treatment which included nutrition, juices and spiritual support, claiming that many of her symptoms had disappeared.
Coroner Catherine Wood also heard from intensive care consultant Dr Peter Anderson who saw Paloma at the Royal Sussex County Hospital when paramedics brought her in.
He said a scan showed a large mass in her chest and neck which was compressing her airways and affecting major blood vessels.
Either could have caused the cardiac arrest, he added.
The inquest continues.
