Shropshire widower backs Assisted Dying Bill after wife’s traumatic death

Warwick Jackson's wife Ann, 61, died of peritoneal cancer in August last year, after being diagnosed in February 2019.

Warwick is from Bridgnorth, and he had originally looked into the possibility of an assisted death for Ann at Dignitas in Switzerland, where the practice is legal under strict parameters, but Ann wasn’t well enough to make the journey.

Warwick had asked for assurance from doctors that Ann would not be in pain when she died, but at the time of her death she was struggling to breathe and was reliant on an oxygen tank.

Doctors had given her the highest possible dose of sedatives in order to ensure she would be unconscious in the last days of her life, but she remained conscious.

Warwick explained: “Ann’s doctors and nurses did everything they could do ease her suffering, but no amount of care and support would have helped her and she suffered right on to the bitter end. Her medical team were surprised that a dose of sedatives which would render a man twice Ann’s size unconscious was unable to help her.

“Right up until the last 24 hours of her life she remained conscious; panicking; gasping; choking; suffocating. She asked a nurse to help her die, but they couldn’t.

“I have come to terms with her death, but I don’t know if I will ever get over seeing her die in such an extreme way. Those days are like a tape going round in my head. This is why I am supporting the Assisted Dying Bill, so that others are spared the suffering that Ann was forced to endure.

“Parliamentarians must understand the reality of the current law and the limits of palliative care if they are to have a fair debate on assisted dying. I hope my MP will meet with me so I can discuss Ann’s experience; I trust he will listen with an open mind.”

Four days before she died, Ann begged a nurse to end her life, but under the 1961 Suicide Act, anyone in England and Wales who assists another person take their own life could be prosecuted and face a maximum jail term of 14 years. It was only in Ann’s final 24 hours of life that the sedatives were able to render Ann unconscious.

The Bill would legalise assisted dying in England and Wales as a choice for terminally ill, mentally competent adults with six months or less to live, alongside existing end-of-life care options, enabling them to die in a manner and at a time of their choosing.

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “Palliative care alone, essential though it is, is simply not enough to ensure that people can die as they have lived – with dignity and on their own terms. Every year thousands of people suffer at the very end of their lives despite the best efforts of care professionals. Research suggests that even if every dying person had access to the best possible specialist care, 17 people a day would still suffer in pain as they die. We need access to both high quality care and greater choice at the end of life, as the Assisted Dying Bill proposes."