Catie described her mum Alison as an ‘incredible lady’ (Picture: Supplied)
At 6am on a bleak February day in 2023, Catie and her sister watched their mum and dad leave in a taxi to the airport.
They knew they would never see their mum again. She was flying to Switzerland, where she would travel to a Dignitas clinic and die with the assistance of medical staff.
But the pair also did not know if they would see their dad again. He could have been stopped at the airport, and could have been charged with facilitating a crime.
‘You know, he went over with two of them and has come back one of them,’ said Catie, who asked for her surname not to be used.
She had not eaten at all on the day she went to pick her dad up following his return flight, unsure if he would even appear.
When he did walk through the arrival doors, he ‘just collapsed’.
Catie, who lives in Oxfordshire, said: ‘He was a broken man for a long time, for what he’d seen and what he’d been through. But he didn’t get a chance to grieve much because then he had to deal with all the paperwork and all the stress afterwards.’
On November 29, MPs will vote for the first time in nine years over whether or not to legalise assisted dying in the UK. The issue is highly charged, with passionate arguments on both sides of the debate.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has allowed a free vote on the issue, and his cabinet is split. Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood have spoken out against legalisation, while Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy have said they will vote for it.
Artist and teacher Catie, 36, argues that the current approach to assisted dying in the UK makes an extremely painful time even more complicated for families like hers.
Alison shared a passion for music with her husband David (Picture: Supplied)
She remembers her mum Alison as a ‘very intelligent, very talented woman’. A university lecturer teaching French and German, she knew six languages, and was also an accomplished folk musician.
But after moving into a new house in September 2021, it became clear Alison was not able to move her body as easily as she once did. Over the following months, her condition deteriorated.
Catie said: ‘This is the reason why her being a musician is so poignant as she could no longer play a concertina or her piano anymore.
‘She loved walking as well. She and Dad walked miles at the weekend, and, of course, that was no longer possible.’
In May 2022, when it became clear something was terribly wrong, Alison decided she would ultimately like to end her life at the Dignitas clinic. She did not tell either of her daughters. The following month, she received a diagnosis of motor neurone disease.
It was not until October that Alison told Catie and her sister about her plans to …read more
Source:: Metro