Prue: Anyone in pain has the right to step out of life
DAME Prue Leith has issued a rallying cry for the right to end-of-life choice, saying she does not want her last moments to be in searing pain.
The TV host, campaigner and patron of Dignity in Dying urged people to consider the plight of those with terminal illness.
She said: “If they are totally miserable, and they’re in pain, and they have an incurable disease, for goodness sake they should have the right to step out of life.”
And the Bake Off host said she wanted the same choices for herself.
She added: “I want to die peacefully in my own bed surrounded by my family. I don’t want to die in a hospital in screaming agony.
“Frankly, it is a great big secret. No one wants to talk about how many people die in real agony and also who just have absolutely had enough of their lives.”
Her open letter to party leaders calling for a debate in Parliament before the general election has so far received over 235,000 signatures, just shy of the 250,000 target.
The Daily Express, with Dignity in Dying, has campaigned for a free vote on assisted dying for MPs. Our petition, supported by Dame Esther Rantzen, has soared to more than 187,000 signatures and secured a Westminster Hall debate on April 29.
Speaking at the launch of the community Big Lunch event, Dame Prue said: “I am always an interfering woman, so I do campaign for sustainability but also really strongly for the right to die when you want to die.
“I am not wanting to force anybody to accept euthanasia or anything grim like that.
“There are people who have had enough of their life because they are in intolerable pain, they’re dying anyway.Why should a good life end with three weeks or even three days of absolute agony when it could be cut short?”
Dame Prue has spoken about her elder brother David suffering a “really horrible death” from bone cancer more than a decade ago, and revealed her late husband Rayne Kruger asked doctors for “a bit of assistance” with dying.
In 2023, she made a documentary with her son, Tory MP for Devizes Danny Kruger, exploring assisted dying.
Dame Prue wants a “safe and legal option” to end a person’s suffering in a peaceful and dignified manner.
On the reasons for wanting assisted dying, she said: “For some people, it’s that they have lived a very long time, all their friends are dead, all their family is dead, they’re lonely. We should say they shouldn’t be lonely but preaching about it doesn’t make it go away.”