Kentish Express Ashford & District
‘Dad knew what was coming so ended it all’
Suzanne Jee joined the fight to legalise assisted dying after her father’s suicide following a brutal battle with oesophageal cancer.
Now, in a cruel twist of fate, she has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, bringing Dignity in Dying’s cause even closer to home.
Suzanne was in her late 20s when her dad, dental surgeon George Drury, received his diagnosis.
He underwent a major operation, but the illness sadly spread to his spine.
“He was in a tremendous amount of pain - painkillers simply didn’t work,” recalls Suzanne, of Sevenoaks.
“He couldn’t sleep.”
One day, the battle became too much for her father and, at the age of just 60, he took his own life.
“It made me feel very angry, that he had to die alone,” said Suzanne, who is in her 70s.
“But he knew what the end of his life would be like. He knew it would be pretty dreadful.
“He said he really couldn’t stand to go through the last throes of terminal illness.
“Although I was horrified he felt he had to do it, I did understand. Because of my nursing background, I’d seen how much pain people can go through at the end of their lives.
“A lot of my patients who were terminally ill said they just wanted to end their suffering.”
Suzanne has been campaigning with the Dignity in Dying’s West Kent group for about three years.
About a year ago, she was diagnosed with an incurable bone marrow cancer.
“So far I’m feeling quite well,” she said. “It’s fairly stable so I’m not intending to shuffle off any time soon. But it focuses one’s mind on what will I do myself, at the end of my life.
“Like most people who go to Switzerland, I don’t want to end my life. But if it gets to the stage where all the quality of life has gone and I’m suffering terribly with pain, then if the law doesn’t change here, I definitely would go.
“My husband and I talk about it freely, and my son also knows what the plan is.
“But I’m hoping I won’t have to go.”
Suzanne rejects the argument that legalising assisted dying would be a “slippery slope”.
“People say, ‘oh well the vulnerable will be affected by this and you’ll be bumping off great aunt Agnes because you want her money’, but that’s not the case,” she said.
“The law would say you need the signature of two doctors and a High Court judge. And you have to be mentally competent.
“It’s been law in Oregon for 22 years, and they’ve never had any problems.
“It’s not for everyone, but I think it should be available for those in intolerable pain who want to have a dignified, kind of comfortable death with their family and friends around them.”