Dame Prue Leith has spoken about her elder brother’s death after seeing him die in pain 12 years ago, as she continues to advocate for assisted suicide to be legalised in the UK.
In a new interview, the Great British Bake Off judge opened out about her brother David’s death.
Her brother, who had bone cancer, died in the hospital in 2012 after suffering in agony for months and expressly requesting to die.
‘In the last three weeks of his life, he spent about one hour out of every four in extreme pain because they would give him more morphine, but either not enough or not frequently enough,’ she claimed.
The Great British Bake Off star revealed on Sky News’ The UK Tonight with Sarah-Jane Mee that David was in ‘extreme screaming agony’ even though he wasn’t on morphine.
Dame Prue said: ‘For his family to be around while he’s crying, begging to die, begging to be given more morphine, it was desperate to watch.’
She added that a doctor warned her that morphine was addictive. To this her response was: ‘If he’s got three weeks to live I don’t care if he’s as high as a kite.’
The TV judge went on to say that most people had a ‘vision from the movies’ of dying gently at home in bed, surrounded by their loved ones. She said that it seldom happens in that manner, but it may if assisted dying is legalised in the UK.
Speaking about how death can be peaceful, she said: ‘My younger brother had a really good death, my elder brother had the one we described.’
The 84-year-old further stated that she had often considered dying and wished for a peaceful death.
‘I want to die like my younger brother did, at home, free of pain.’
In an open letter to party leaders published in May, Dame Prue said, “I ask you, as you prepare for the next General Election, to listen to the voices of those most affected by this issue – dying people and their families.” Please expedite this vital debate in the next Parliament.
In an interview with Sky, Dame Prue discussed lobbying for dignity in dying with MPs and how she had a lot of encouraging reactions.
She said it was terrible that many dying individuals were forced to choose between “suffering or suicide in Switzerland,” adding that Switzerland wasn’t much of an option and was more of a’red herring’ because it is expensive and impracticable for many very ill people to get there.
Dame Prue concluded the interview on a note that seemed positive towards the future: ‘I feel quite hopeful about this. We’re going to have a new government, the word is getting out, more and more MPs are coming over to our side.’
‘I think the next parliament will have an assisted dying bill which will be humane and in years to come, people will look back and think why on earth didn’t they do that before?’
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Source My Celebrity Life.