Nothing focuses the mind quite like clinging to the side of a mountain in gale force winds, driving rain and fog so thick you can’t actually see further than your nose.
But clinging to the side of said mountain with a group of women who have just been through gruelling breast cancer treatment? Well let me tell you, that really shows you what matters in life.
I mention this because last week I joined 120 others touched by the disease on a 100km trek across the Isle of Skye to raise money for the charity CoppaFeel. There were tears, there was laughter and, in some cases, the beginnings of trench foot. But mostly, there was an incredible sense of just how precious – and wonderful – life can be.
For many of the women I trekked with, the challenge was a walk in the park compared to some of the things they’d gone through. They were there to reclaim their lives after periods of fear, illness and treatment.
There was one woman who had found the lump that would change her life when she was pregnant with her third child; another young mum assumed the strange sensation in her chest was from breast-feeding, but went to get it checked out ‘just in case’. Thank God she did, because it meant that last week she could march up Skye’s most fearsome mountains.
Doctors told Paloma Shemirani that she had an 80 per cent chance of a full recovery with chemotherapy, but she opted for an alternative therapy
I returned from Scotland with a renewed appreciation for the doctors and scientists who work so tirelessly to extend and improve the lives of people with cancer. So it was heartbreaking to then read about 23-year-old Paloma Shemirani, who died in 2024 after refusing treatment for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Doctors told Paloma that she had an 80 per cent chance of a full recovery with chemotherapy, but she opted for an alternative therapy. Her mother, Kate, is a prominent conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer. Now Paloma’s brothers, Gabriel and Sebastian, are trying to highlight what happened to their sister, who Sebastian says ‘passed away as a direct consequence of my mum’s actions and beliefs… I don’t want anyone else to go through the same pain or loss that I have’.
The case of the Shemiranis might seem extreme – the brothers claim they grew up being told that the Royal Family were shape-shifting lizards – but when social media stars now seem to hold as much sway as scientists, and the US Health Secretary is a vaccine sceptic, situations like this are increasingly common. Indeed, at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology earlier this month, doctors warned that cancer misinformation had ‘acutely worsened in the past decade’, with many patients dying needlessly as they become sucked in by quackery they’ve seen online.
Paloma’s mother, Kate Shemirani, is a prominent conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer
Bryony Gordon, left, during her 100km trek for CoppaFeel across the Isle of Skye
The study presented at the meeting warned that scientists were ‘losing the battle for communication’. According to the research, one in 20 people had no trust in scientists to provide cancer information. And yet, somehow, plenty of people put their faith in the snake oil salesmen who now populate social media, their credentials being the number of followers they have, rather than their medical degrees. Why put your faith in medicine, when you could go on a juice cleanse?
It would all seem tragic, if it didn’t border on criminal. The levels of misinformation online may be obvious to some, but it has the power to damage both the mental and physical health of people who are already vulnerable. A friend with secondary breast cancer tells me she’s lost count of the times people have offered her unsolicited – and false – advice about her disease being caused by sugar, ‘which ironically only makes me want to dive for the Dairy Milk in a state of depression’. TikTok is awash with people who claim to have cured stage four cancer through diet and lifestyle changes. And over on X, people including Kate Shemirani happily peddle the notion doctors are out to get you.
Shameless Shemirani was once a nurse herself, but was struck off the nursing register in 2021 after claiming Covid was a hoax (tell that to the doctors in intensive care units at the height of the pandemic). To her 80,000 followers such rejection from the medical ‘establishment’ only gives her more credibility. It enables her to claim Paloma died ‘as a result of medical interventions given without confirmed diagnosis or lawful consent’, without displaying a shred of shame.
Reading through Kate Shemirani’s social media feed, all I could think was: how dare she? How dare she say that the NHS killed her child, when it only ever sought to make her better? How dare all these anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists claim to know more than the doctors and scientists who have trained for years to improve lives? How dare they have scared a desperately sick young woman, in order to suit their twisted agendas? But most of all, how dare they have deprived poor Paloma of the life-saving magic of medicine?
Brad Pitt at the premiere of F1: The Movie in London this week
Like Brad, I was saved by Alcoholics Anonymous
Brad Pitt has been talking about going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in LA after his split from Angelina Jolie. ‘Everyone was so open… I really grew to love it. Some guys would be like, “Do you know what, I didn’t have such a bad week” and [they would] talk about their wins, little failures and little successes.’
Like Pitt, I was also saved by AA, and I think it’s important to hammer home just how many lives it has changed for the better. It’s one of the few places where truly anyone is welcome.
I’m not convinced Emma Raducanu and Carlos Alcaraz are an actual item, as all the gossip-mongers hope – but they may be tennis’s most exciting work couple, now they’re pairing up for mixed doubles at the US Open later this year. A work spouse is the person in the office you are closest to, but in a platonic way. Think bickering instead of bonking, and you’re on the right track.
Kate’s collapse is no surprise
Kate Moss spotted smoking in London in March this year
It’s the end of days for Kate Moss’s wellness empire, as Cosmoss is closing after three years. Is anyone surprised? Think what you will about Gwyneth Paltrow’s bonkers Goop enterprise, you can’t deny she lives and breathes it. The only thing Moss seems to breathe is the smoke from her cigarette as she exits another party. Proof that if you’re going to talk the talk, you also need to walk to the walk.
The joy of holidaying in term time
I was relieved by the new research showing up to two million parents take their children on breaks during term time to beat the spiralling cost of summer holidays. We’ve been not-so-secretly pulling our daughter out of class for mid-term breaks since Reception. Not only is it half the price, but there’s half the people. Do I feel guilty? Not when I don’t have to get up at 6am to bag a sun lounger.
Glasto? I’d rather be on the sofa
It’s that time of year, when swathes of people armed with selfie sticks descend on Somerset, desperate for you to know what a great time they are having. Glastonbury FOMO is real, but remember: if you feel like everyone is there but you, it’s more comfortable and hygienic watching from your sofa.
Listen to The Life of Bryony, where Bryony Gordon dives into all of life’s messier bits every week. Available wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube now.
