Health blogger’s daughter who refused chemo died of cancer

MAIDSTONE, United Kingdom (AFP) — A UK coroner on Thursday ruled a British health blogger who promotes conspiracy theories had “adversely influenced” her daughter to refuse chemotherapy, causing her death from cancer.

Kate Shemirani, whose real name is Kay, has tens of thousands of followers on social media. 

She claims to have cured herself of breast cancer using alternative medicine.

Her daughter, Paloma, 23, died on 24 July 2024, from non-Hodgkin lymphoma despite being given an 80 percent chance of survival if she agreed to chemotherapy. 

Instead she went to live with her mother and underwent an alternative treatment called Gerson therapy, involving vegetable juices and coffee enemas.

According to Cancer Research UK, there is “no scientific evidence” for this as a cancer treatment.

“I found Mrs. Shemirani adversely influenced Paloma,” the coroner Catherine Wood told a court in Maidstone, Kent, after a long drawn-out inquest.

“I find she was encouraging and influencing Paloma to take the route that she did,” the coroner said.

The influence of others on Paloma’s decisions “did contribute more than minimally to her death,” the coroner added.

Kate’s sons, Gabriel, 24, and Sebastian, 26, accuse their mother of influencing their sister to refuse cancer treatment. 

“I wanted the verdict to be gross negligence manslaughter,” Gabriel told Agence France-Presse, adding he was planning to challenge the outcome.

“It looked like the coroner was leaning towards that, it’s just she let Kay (Kate) off on a technicality.”