I just wish love could fix it but it can’t.. life is cruel
Paralysed horse rider’s assisted suicide note
I have never understood the obsession with the need to live for as long as possible
CAROLINE MARCH IN HER EMOTIONAL FAREWELL LETTER
A HORSE rider who was paralysed after a serious fall wrote a heartbreaking farewell letter before her assisted suicide on Saturday.
Caroline March, 31, was unable to walk following her spinal cord injury at a cross-country event in April 2022.
She had successful surgery on a fractured vertebrae but was forced to leave professional eventing behind.
In a letter posted online, she revealed why she had chosen to end her life – just a month after her birthday.
She wrote: “I’ve never understood society’s obsession with longevity and the need to live for as long as possible.
“Alan Watts, a well-known philosopher said, ‘I’d rather have a short life that is full of what I love doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way’.
“Assisted suicide is always something I believed in and have always said that if anything happened to me and I was forced into the predicament that I couldn’t have the quality of life I wanted, that would be the route I’d take.
“Never imagined it would come to fruition but here we are.
“I could keep going but it’s a decision I’ve made which is the best route for me. No one can truly understand what I have to go through.”
Caroline told how she thrived on adrenaline hits and spontaneity, which was no longer possible with her injury.
The wheelchair user said she was independent and hated asking for help.
Caroline, from Colchester, Essex, said no one has the right to judge, adding: “My utmost respect for anyone who hasn’t only made a life after injury, but those that have flourished.” It has not been made public where or how she ended her life. The star said she wanted to write a letter to silence the voices of people who would second-guess her opinion. Caroline was also knocked out during her accident at Barefoot Retreats Burnham Market in Norfolk. She later had physiotherapy sessions, recovery workouts and even flew to the US for experimental treatment. In her Facebook letter, she added of her injury: “I have felt so much love from so many people the last few years. “I just wish love could fix it or even make it bearable but it can’t.
“I’m an incredible person, something I truly believe now but it doesn’t change anything. Life is cruel, really cruel.”
Last month, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer pledged Parliament would vote on assisted dying laws if his party wins the next general election.
He told assisted dying campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen he was in favour of changing the legislation.
Assisted dying was voted on nearly a decade ago but a bill to legalise the practice was defeated.
Under existing law, relatives who help a person end their life could face a maximum of 14 years’ imprisonment.
Campaign group Care Not Killing says it is “impossible to have a safe system of medicalised killing”.
Some fear legalising assisted suicide could be open to abuse, with people being pressured into decisions.