'My stress and fear of taking my wife to Dignitas'
CatieThe family of a terminally ill woman who took her own life at Dignitas have spoken of the stress and worry they experienced trying to keep the plan a secret to avoid prosecution.
David, from Berkshire, accompanied his wife Alison to the assisted dying clinic in Switzerland in February 2023.
At present, laws throughout the UK prevent people from asking for medical help to die. Those who assist someone to end their life face up to 14 years in prison.
David and his daughter Catie, who lives in Oxfordshire, have decided to open up about what happened as part of efforts to change the law on assisted dying.
"The stress of looking over my shoulder... started to play on me quite badly," its David.
"We just could not risk [telling] even the closest friend. You just thought 'well if they let their guard down and let it slip then all that work we did to keep it quiet would be undone'."
Alison was a talented singer, musician and artist. She taught French and German at the University of Reading and loved holidays and walking with her family.
She was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND), a life-limiting, neurological condition, in June 2022.
CatieHaving researched MND and the impact it would have on her ability to walk, talk and swallow, Alison told her husband that she wanted to end her life on her own at Dignitas.
"She knew she would lose herself, everything she was would be taken away," David says.
"[It was] devastating because you knew there is no going back but I immediately went into 'how can we help? what can we do":[]}