The message, from a stranger on Instagram, absolutely broke me. “Dear Liz,” It started, “I have to tell you about a friend with advanced breast cancer. She has spent thousands of restrictive diets and supplements, instead of undergoing surgery and chemotherapy. ‘
As a former breast surgeon who has had breast cancer three times, I am used to people who tell me about personal medical matters. I now write and speak regularly about the disease, try to share evidence-based advice and help others by navigating the minefield of wrong information online.
At the time of that Instagram message I was investigating the cancer routine, my book was aimed at disproving myths about the treatment of cancer. I had discussing alternative therapies and the dangers of medical wrong information about my social media channels, so it was not entirely a surprise to get such a note. But while I kept reading, I felt a growing sense of fear.
The foreign national wrote about her boyfriend – let’s call her e – who found a breast chunk just after her wedding day. She was afraid of chemotherapy and had refused all the treatment that her doctors offered.
Instead, she put her confidence in an American herbalist who offers online consultation.
He instructed her to eat two kilograms (4.5 pound) raw fruit and fruit a day and drink green tea, aloe vera juice and apple cider vinegar. She was told to buy a list of supplements: apricot seeds, turmeric, turkey -tail -toothed chair, bitter melon and sour.
In addition, she removed drugs from the label: metformin, a diabetes medication and ivermectin, the anti-parasitic ‘horse-wormer’ false during the pandemic as a Covid remedy. She was instructed to meditate, visualize herself healing and to practice kindness for herself and others.
Within a few months her cancer had spread to her liver and bones. She was in a wheelchair, in painful pain, but still held on to the protocol. When tumors started to break through her skin, she added charcoal compresses, hoping that they would ‘draw toxins’.
Paloma Shemirani, daughter of former nurse Kate Shemirani, died of a heart attack linked to non -hodgkin -lymphoma at the age of 23 because she struck chemotherapy -and reportedly chose Gerson Protocol instead
Only when it was much too late did she start palliative chemotherapy. She died weeks later.
Towards the end of the message I sobbed. A young woman was dead – not because there was no remedy, but because she was persuaded to reject it. She believed that lies were dressed as hope.
As a doctor it makes me furious. But as a patient I understand the fear that makes people turn to these false promises. I know how desperate you want control – to believe that there is a ‘natural’ path.
The problem is those who pedal this kind of deadly bunkum prey on that despair. They operate it. It shaking me with anger.
This all came back when I was asked to appear in an episode of BBC One’s Panorama named Cancer Severe Theories: Why did our sister died? The 30 -minute show, which was broadcast last week, brought our eye to eye with Kate Shemirani, a former nurse who lost her permit in 2021 to spread dangerous theories during the pandemic.
It focused on the tragic story of her daughter, Paloma. Diagnosed in 2023 with non-Hodgkin-lymphoma-one form of cancer with a survival rate of 80 percent when treated with standard care paloma refused chemotherapy.
Instead, reportedly, under the influence of her mother, she followed the Gerson protocol: daily juicer cleaning, coffee glys and supplements. It is a scientifically discredited regime that Shemirani has long promoted and claims that it heals its own breast cancer.
The suffering and decline of Paloma are painfully detailed in the show by her brothers Gabriel and Sebastian, who long ago break the ties with their mother because of her extreme beliefs.
In July 2024, Paloma, only 23, had a heart attack linked to her illness. She was put on living, but died days later.
Kate Shemirani has moved the blame of her daughter’s death to ‘medical interventions’, going so far to claim X: ‘Medicine is a lie … What we once thought that health care is now a murder service’
The brothers are now campaigning for stricter action against medical incorrect information and pending an official investigation.
Sebastian told Panorama: “My sister died as a direct consequence of my mother’s actions and beliefs.”
In the meantime, Kate Shemirani has moved the debt to ‘medical interventions’ and went so far to claim X: “Medicine is a lie … What we once thought that healthcare is now a murder service.”
The truth is that these kinds of horrible stories occur more and more often.
E’s story sent me a dark online rabbit hole from so-called ‘cancer coaches’ a world that I had not realized it existed. These practitioners themselves do not offer treatment, but recommend alternative cancer therapists who do that, as well as diets and supplements – of course for a fee.
They want patients to use conventional treatment and, in addition to many other things, supplements and herbs, vitamin infusions, detox programs, infrared and electromagnetic therapy and parasite cleaning.
They sell their services based on glowing testimonials and write convincing books that promise miracles, thanks to protocols ‘Your doctor will not tell you’.
And regular doctors like me? We are simply medicines that are made by pharmaceutical companies that are bowed to benefit by keeping ourselves unwell.
Of course I was aware of alternative cancer therapies – most cancer patients try something ‘natural’, even if it’s just lavender on a pillow to help relaxation. But I had no idea of its industrial scale.
The global health coach market is estimated at more than £ 13 billion a year, which is expected to rise to more than £ 20 billion by 2032.
So I contacted cancer coaches using a pseudonym, but my real medical history – and what I discovered was a vast, lucrative industry built on vulnerable hope.
Most are not doctors. Some are chiropractors or alternative therapists. Others have no health qualifications at all. But they all offer the same seductive promise: by discovering the mysterious ‘main cause’ of my cancer – stress, trauma, toxins – I could cure myself without chemotherapy or surgery.
I have had breast cancer three times. It was even difficult for me to accept that the standard medical treatment was the best way every time. As a doctor I know that cancer is secretly – it can mutate resistance and develop resistance to chemotherapy medication. And the patient in me has sometimes felt as a medicine, I failed.
But I also know that without chemotherapy and radiotherapy I would not be here today.
Paloma’s brothers Gabriel and Sebastian spoke about their torment on BBC One’s Panorama in a documentary entitled Cancer conspiracy theories: Why did our sister died?
If you hear ‘your cancer’, your world will fall apart. You want hope. Control. Certainty you will survive.
No doctor can give you that. We want to give the best that science has to offer, but there are no guarantees.
So I see how people are convinced to spend thousands of pounds, to give their houses again, to cash in pensions and crowd funding in search of a remedy. Some delay operation. Others refuse chemotherapy.
I found a Facebook group for the families of those who consulted cancer coaches, went to foreign clinics and died.
Just like E, they trusted the wrong person. It’s grim reading. You do not see these testimonies on the flashy cancer coach websites.
The problem is that there is few regulations. Everyone can call themselves a cancer coach. There are no legal standards. No license body. No complaints process.
Shortly after he received the message, another woman contacted me about her friend – whom we W.
He had advanced colon cancer and had chemotherapy, but was terrified of dying, so he consulted a cancer coach abroad that he had found online, who w: “Nobody ever died on my watch.”
W started a restrictive diet of mainly fruit and fruit, without dairy products, as well as a cocktail of herbs and supplements, including Zeemos.
He was told to rent a BioresonantieMachine for £ 1,000 a month to use a few hours a day. The theory is that energy waves would manipulate that are emitted by cancer cells to help them vibrate with a healthy frequency. There is no evidence that it works.
W’s cancer grew. The coach told him to double the time he spent with the use of the machine and ordered more supplements.
W ended up in a hospice. His team took a look at the supplements and was shocked. The sea moss damaged his liver and others disrupted Chemo Medicines.
The diet left his body less able to deal with the treatment. W was switched to palliative care and died a few weeks later. It is impossible to know whether the coach’s recommendations have accelerated his death. His website is filled with glowing testimonials.
This is no longer a fringe wellness. It is a thriving, non -regulated industry that is worth billions – fed by fear, slick marketing and pseudoscience.
And are victims? They are often too sick to challenge, to be ashamed to speak out – or no longer here to tell their story.
The Cancer Roadmap: Real Science to Guide Your treatment path, By Dr. Liz O’Riordan (HarperCollins) is now out.
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