A glimmer of hope has allowed me to call off my suicide ... For now ...
EACH WEEK, UNTIL HE TAKES HIS OWN LIFE AT A SWISS SUICIDE CLINIC, THE SUNDAY HERALD IS PUBLISHING THE DIARY OF COLIN CAMPBELL, CHARTING HIS BATTLE WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND HIS DECISION TO DETERMINE THE TIME AND METHOD OF HIS DEATH
GIVEN the political climate, I think it is worth a quick reminder that the purpose of this diary is to make the case for legal voluntary assisted suicide in Scotland.
The majority of the Scottish electorate want politicians to ensure legislation is fast-tracked through the Scottish Parliament. That means early 2018 must be the year when Scotland follows the increasing number of modern progressive-thinking civilised countries by legalising this most essential of all human rights: the right to make your own decision on how, if faced with serious incurable illness or disabling injury, you may want to choose your life be ended.
Once legalised the process will be subject a minimum of six criteria that will ensure neither vulnerable or elderly people are placed at risk.
I have personally gone through the application process in Switzerland. Only by meeting the criteria did doctors agree they would provide me with a self-administered life-ending prescription on the morning of Thursday June 15, 2017. And now with only a few days to go it is important to explain my reason for deferral.
Back in April, an early-evening news report of my intended legal voluntary assisted suicide in Switzerland prompted former Metropolitan Police Sergeant Rona Tyan to get in contact with me. To cut a long story short, Rona, who also has MS, persuaded me to undergo experimental stem cell treatment which could halt the progression of the primary progressive multiple sclerosis that I have. Truly, had Rona not contacted me I would without doubt have ended my life in Basel, Switzerland, this coming Thursday. For now, my date with Switzerland is on hold, pending the success or failure of the new treatment.
During a lunch in Rona’s kitchen on Wednesday, BBC Radio 4 recorded an episode of Hardeep’s Sunday Lunch to be broadcast in September 2017.
Glasgow based Hardeep, also a fellow Sunday Herald columnist, is an amazing chef who made a deliciously spicy haggis curry.
It was so tasty that having had seconds I decided to have thirds. Cranachan was the deliciously traditional desert that followed.
Joking, I suggested Rona offer him a full time job as her personal chef to which he has agreed. Start date to be confirmed. Hardeep had many questions of us about legalising voluntary assisted suicide in Scotland. I explained the safeguards that were in place in nations which have legalised the process already.
If the stem cell therapy is not successful, then I will return to my role as the condemned man alone in his cell on death row and complete my journey to Switzerland.
If the therapy doesn’t work and I do die in Switzerland, then I have specified cremation in Basel and my ashes to be scattered there.
The very fact that a seriously ill person has to travel with great physical difficulty to Lifecircle at Basel, in the first place, is shameful to Scotland.
The duty doctor at ‘Lifecircle’ will ask me do I wish to proceed in the knowledge that I will die. The doctor has no involvement in administering the prescription.
I take my own life, and administer the drug that will kill me. Within seconds I will become unconscious, as happens with a general anaesthaetic, and soon after I will die.
It is time for Scotland to leave behind the archaic views of the British medical establishment. Views represented by the BMA and some politicians are not those of the majority of people. We are a modern forward-thinking country. Our Scottish parliament is sufficient to ensure we get legislation that is supported by a majority.
Rona Tynan has told me that she and her husband are about to start crowdfunding efforts for me to pay for stem cell treatment. There will soon be details of how to make a donation.
IT is strange that all these issues lie before me at the time of the General Election. I used to be a political activist in my youth but with the passing of each election I became more and more disillusioned. More than ever before there is a general view that politicians rarely do anything that is of direct relevance for most of the electorate. A great chance to remove that scepticism is to ensure that in early 2018 the Scottish Parliament legislates to legalise voluntary assisted suicide. Such legislation is of relevance for all of the electorate.
As my health is so frail, I certainly didn’t sit up watching the election night broadcasts. It was a microwave curry followed by a night alone of music and a few drams.
I have loved music my entire life, so as my life draws to a close, I find myself listening all day every day and night to my favourite 500 songs.
When I pause the tracks it is to play acoustic guitar or electric guitar.
I have a sense of urgency about this as I live with the daily dread of losing the use of my hands as MS progresses.
Playing classic blues electric guitar licks is for me a totally satisfying experience.
When my thoughts turn to treatment options for multiple sclerosis I am met with the usual vagueness. I asked my MS specialist nurse about my getting the drug Ocrelizumab as it would be a reason to stay in my deferred suicide status. She told me there is no certainty as to whether or not I will meet the requirements. In that case, I suggested, she may as well drive me to the airport to get my Switzerland flight.
To be accepted for stem cell treatment it is necessary to live in a groundfloor flat, so that rehabilitation is feasible. I still remain in my flat up flights of stairs. If I can get that ground-floor flat, the stem cell therapy and Ocrelizumab, then there is hope. If not, then I will continue my journey to Basel.
To donate go to www.mssociety.org.uk/