By the time you read this, I will be dead

Dignitas death grandad’s plea for law change in letter to MPS

A PENSIONER suffering from motor neurone disease has passed away in his wife’s arms at Dignitas, after begging MPS to change the law on assisted dying.

Geoffrey Whaley, 80, died surrounded by friends and family at the well-known suicide clinic in Switzerland yesterday.

But he had issued a heartfelt plea to Whitehall amid fears his wife Ann, 76, could face prison for helping him plan the end of his life after she was questioned by police.

In an open letter, he told MPS: “By the time you read this, I will be dead. I want to impress upon you the anguish me and my family have experienced, not because of this aw ful illness… but because of the law against assisted dying in this country.”

Current UK law says encouraging or assisting a suicide is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Geoffrey, who had two children and f our grandchildren , was distraught his wife was visited by police after she booked his flight to Zurich.

Ann, of Chalfont St Peter, Bucks, said: “Geoff and I have been very happily married for 52 years. I have never seen him cry. The day the police called, he sobbed. To think… I might be arrested for doing what any loving wife would do was unconscionable.”

Geoffrey was told in December he had just six to nine months to live. A Mirror survey last year showed 75% of Brits would back a change in the law to allow assisted dying.

I’d not seen George cry in 52 years.. he sobbed when the police came ANN WHALEY ON HOW HER HUSBAND REACTED TO RAID

DESPERATE Geoffrey and Ann Whaley DEVOTED On their wedding day 52 years ago