SLOW PROGRESS IS ‘FRUSTRATING’

DR Anne Turner’s journey to Dignitas was followed by the BBC in 2006 and dramatised in a film starring Julie Walters. The decision to share her story sparked a national conversation on assisted dying.

But 18 years on, her daughter Sophie says the UK’s slow progress is “beyond frustrating”.

Anne had progressive supranuclear palsy, a disease that causes loss of muscle function. Her husband had died of a similar condition, multiple system atrophy. The family had witnessed him starving and dehydrating himself to death.

Anne was determined to avoid the same fate. Sophie said: “She was categoric that she wanted to take her own life. Imagine knowing that you could end up trapped, just basically a brain, functioning, but you can’t speak, eat, move.

“It’s horrendous to think that people have that at the forefront of their minds, that fear about how they’re going to end their days.”

Just under a year after her 2004 diagnosis, Anne tried to take her own life. When she survived, Sophie and her siblings, Edward and Jessica, agreed to support her wish to travel to Dignitas.

Sophie said: “Every moment was so precious. We made the most of the time we had together.”

Anne met with a doctor and, after completing the necessary procedures, took an anti-sickness drug followed by the life-ending medication. Sophie said: “She very quickly said, ‘I feel woozy’. Then she lay down and went into a very deep sleep. “Twenty minutes later the volunteer said: ‘She’s gone’. We felt this sense of achievement because it was what she wanted but also frustration that she had to travel abroad to die while she still had some quality of life left.”

Sophie added: “A lot of people [...] don’t understand that people aren’t choosing between life and death, they’re choosing between two different types of death.” Anne’s story was told in the 2009 film A Short Stay in Switzerland. Julie won an International Emmy for her portrayal of the brave mum-of-three.