I want to go peacefully: Cancer-hit Illingworth backs the right to die
ENGLAND cricket great ray Illingworth has declared his support for assisted dying while revealing he is being treated for cancer.
The 89-year-old, who lost his wife to the disease, is having a course of radiotherapy which he hopes will get rid of an oesophageal tumour.
‘I don’t want to have the last 12 months that my wife had,’ he said. ‘she had a terrible time going from hospital to hospital and in pain. I don’t want that. I would rather go peacefully. I believe in assisted dying. The way my wife was, there was no pleasure in life in the last 12 months and I don’t see the point of living like that.
‘But we don’t have assisted dying in england yet so you don’t have the option do you? They are debating it and I think it will come eventually. a lot of doctors are against it but if they had to live like my wife did in her last 12 months they might change their minds.’
It is a criminal offence to help someone take their life but a proposed change to the law, the assisted Dying Bill, was debated in the House of Lords last month.
MPs will vote on the proposals in the coming months. a YouGov poll revealed last month that a majority of them back the right for those with less than six months to live to be allowed help to end their life.
support among MPs has soared from 35 per cent to 58 per cent inside two years. In september the British Medical association dropped its opposition to assisted dying with a landmark vote to instead take a neutral stance on the issue. During last month’s debate in the Lords, a speech by former Labour minister frank field was read in which he made an emotional plea for a change in the law and revealed he was terminally ill.
Illingworth, who led england to a rare ashes victory in australia 50 years ago, said his treatment has had some success, with the latest update due next month.
‘They got rid of a lot of the tumour but there were still two centimetres left, originally it was eight,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
‘They are just hoping to get rid of the last bit with extra double doses. I will see how these next two doses go, keep my fingers crossed and
‘There was no pleasure in life’
hope I have a bit of luck.’ Illingworth, who captained Yorkshire with great success, also spoke about the racism row that has caused a crisis at his former county as ‘very sad’.
He added: ‘racism and abuse has no place in any walk of life, let alone the sporting community. I just think it’s a very sad time for everyone involved in cricket and Yorkshire cricket in particular at the moment.’
The father of two, who lives in farsley, Leeds, suffered a heart attack in 2011.
His wife shirley died in March. around 9,300 oesophageal cancer cases are diagnosed in the UK each year.