I am going to die in a Swiss clinic on Monday
Terminally ill company director, 57, announces suicide plan on LinkedIn
A TERMINALLY ill company director has announced his ‘death’ on the internet before he ends his life at a Swiss suicide clinic.
Simon Binner, who has aggressive motor neurone disease, used the professional networking site LinkedIn to declare that he will die on Monday.
Helped by his wife, he described his struggle with the devastating condition in videos posted on Facebook and has also given details of his planned funeral.
The grandfather also made an emotive call for assisted dying to be made legal in the UK – saying it would have allowed him to extend his life to spend one last Christmas with his family.
Mr Binner, 57, wrote an obituary- style note on LinkedIn of his plans to travel to t he Eternal Spirit cl i nic i n Basel, adding: ‘I died in Switzerland ... on Mon 19 Oct 2015 and my funeral was on Fri 13 Nov 2015.
‘My MND accelerated very rapidly. The sawbones initially thought I would last until 2017/2018, but they were mistaken – no worries, it’s an inexact science!’
The businessman was diagnosed with aggressive MND in January and said he had decided what he would ‘gladly have to do when my time was upon me’ as he was driven home. He added on LinkedIn: ‘I don’t recommend MND! Better to have one massive fatal stroke or be killed instantly by a drunk driver!
‘There is nothing that I can say that’s positive about MND.’
It is the second tragedy to hit the family. Mr Binner’s 18-year-old stepdaughter Chloe Drury died from the rare bone cancer Ewing’s Sarcoma in 2013 after being refused access to potentially lifesaving drugs.
The Cambridge- educated businessman, director at a firm that provides care for the elderly, has created a Facebook page with videos about his condition, which progressively damages parts of the nervous system.
Struggling to speak because of the disease, he explains his decision to end his life and describes footage of a holiday with his wife and friends in Germany earlier this year as ‘happy days’.
In more recent videos believed to have been shot at his home in Purley, South London, Mr Binner talks of his wish that he could stay in the UK to die at a date of his choosing – rather than having to go to Switzerland while he is still well enough to fly. He said: ‘I don’t want to go Switzerland to die there, I don’t want to go to hospital... I want to be here for Christmas but I can’t be here.’
He said the law which makes assisted suicide a criminal offence in the UK was a ‘nonsense’.
In another video, his wife Debbie describes how his condition is like ‘waking up to a nightmare every morning’.
Mrs Binner, 51, said before his illness her husband was a ‘ high energy workaholic’ who loved skiing, mountain-biking and tennis. She also said he ‘loved’ spending time with young people and had a ‘huge group of friends’. Describing how he has deteriorated so much he can no longer even cut his own nails, she said: ‘The horror of it all for someone who is very much a communicator, a very big character, very much a leader... an alpha male who has a lot to say.
‘And that has happened in a period of about seven months.’
Mrs Binner, a former Sky News presenter, added: ‘It feels a very brutal pre-planned thing that we are going to have to do. This day is looming. His 85-year-old mother is going to have to get on the plane which is going to be very trau- matic.’ She said being able to die in his own home would be ‘gentler’ and ‘less dramatic.’
She added: ‘Simon believes very strongly that this should be his legal right. He wants to be at home as much as possible. Simon feels that if that was available in the UK he may well want to stay alive longer. Christmas would be lovely for us to have.
‘He feels he has to go at a time when he can walk onto the plane because he has to do that bit himself.’
Mr Binner, an engineer by trade who worked in the IT industry until 2012, is operations director at Care-
‘This day is looming’ ‘Can’t be here for Christmas’
mark Sutton, which provides home care for the elderly. He works there with his wife of 14 years and his stepdaughter Hannah. Referring to his period with the company, his LinkedIn entry reads: ‘I handed over my operations director role to Hannah Drury and became a nonexecutive director. I died on Mon 19 Oct 2015.’
Mrs Binner has previously campaigned for changes to medical law after her daughter was turned down for a trial by a US drugs firm when she was 17. The company said it would ‘jeopardise her safety and the integrity of the trial data’.
She was allowed on the course when she turned 18, but by then it was too late. Her family subsequently campaigned for age restrictions to be lifted during trials.
At the time, Mr and Mrs Binner said: ‘These are children who are cut off right at their prime and there is very little that can be done for them.’
The Metropolitan Police said reports of people travelling abroad to assisted suicide clinics are not a matter for British officers unless it is believed they have travelled under duress. MPs overwhelmingly voted against allowing assisted dying in Britain last month after critics warned the law would be open to abuse by relatives of vulnerable and elderly people.
Dr Michael Irwin, head of the Society for Old Age Rational Suicide, described Mr Binner as a ‘lovely and courageous man’.
He said: ‘I met with him a few weeks ago and he discussed his idea, though I did not know his exact plans. He was struggling to speak but was clearly a very determined person.’
Friends gathered at the family home in Purley last night. Mrs Binner came to the door and said it was a ‘difficult time’ but would not comment further.