Paloma Shemirani: Woman who died of cancer had five coffee enemas a day instead of chemo, inquest told

A woman who died from cancer after refusing chemotherapy to treat it was instead having five coffee enemas a day to beat the disease, an inquest into her death has been told.

Paloma Shemirani, a 23-year-old Cambridge graduate, died after suffering a heart attack linked to her non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the Royal Sussex County Hospital on July 24 last year.

The actions of Paloma’s mother Kay ‘Kate’ Shemirani, a disgraced nurse and controversial health influencer, is under scrutiny, with Paloma’s brothers alleging she was abusive to her children and involved in Paloma’s “alternative treatment program”.

Kate was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in 2021 after peddling COVID conspiracies that “put the public at a significant risk of harm”.

At an inquest into Paloma’s death her twin brother, Gabriel Shemirani, said he blamed his mother “entirely” for his sister’s death, saying she “obstructed treatment”, The Independent reports.

“In short I believe that she sacrificed Paloma’s life for her own principles, I believe that she should be held accountable for Paloma’s death,” he said in the Kent and Medways Coroners Court.

He told the inquest Paloma was having “five coffee enemas a day” under her mother’s care as part of an unproven alternative cancer regimen known as Gerson therapy — one which her mother claimed to have used successfully herself when she had cancer in the past.

Gerson therapy involves a strict diet and supplements and uses coffee enemas to “cleanse toxins” from the body.

While Paloma was still alive, in April 2024, Gabriel brought a High Court case to assess his sister‘s ability to make medical decisions while living with her mother, he had also previously raised his concerns with social services.

In written statements, Paloma had expressed fear of undergoing chemotherapy, worried it could affect her fertility and even questioned whether she even had cancer.

With treatment, the five year survival rate for patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma is about 75 per cent.

The inquest was told that Paloma had a complicated relationship with her mother and was estranged from her at the time she was first diagnosed.

Gabriel alleged Paloma was considering chemotherapy to treat her cancer but her parents pressured her into rejecting it.

In one message to Paloma, her father wrote, “don’t consent to anything from the doctors they try and kill you”. While her mother had said “I’m the only one that can help you, don’t bite the hand that feeds”.

Kate and her ex-husband, Paloma’s father Faramarz Shemirani, told the BBC in June they had evidence “Paloma died as a result of medical interventions given without confirmed diagnosis or lawful consent” but that has not been substantiated.

The inquest continues.