1. The Dove and the Pigeon
What Happened to Paloma?
What happened to Paloma? Aged 22, Paloma Shemirani has her whole life ahead of her. She’s recently graduated, moved into a flat and found a job. But just days before Christmas in 2023 she receives bad news, she has cancer - an aggressive but treatable form of Lymphoma. Despite a good prognosis, Paloma decides - at least initially - to reject chemotherapy. The BBC’s social media investigations correspondent Marianna Spring investigates what happened and what this tells us about the mainstreaming of anti-medicine ideas.
Host: Marianna Spring
Producer: Anna Harris
Story Editor: Matt Willis
Sound Designer: Tony Churnside
Editor: Sam Bonham
Commissioning producer: Nathan Jones
Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
This was a BBC collaboration with Panorama.
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- Mon 30 Jun 202509:00BBC Radio 4
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Marianna in Conspiracyland
The home of Marianna Spring's investigations for BBC Radio 4.

