Read Personal Stories

Kathleen Friend

Kathleen tells her mother's story:

I have always supported the choice for people to have an assisted death if they are suffering at the end of their lives and have done for 25 years.  My reason for thinking about it all those years ago was that my Mother had cancer.  For the last ten days of her life my Mum was suffering terribly. She was vomiting her own rotten insides up all the time.  I begged my sister, who was looking after my mum abroad, to do something to help her, but she was horrified and said that Mum was having morphine three times a day and that that was all she could do. 

Since that time I have supported Dignity in Dying.

I worked as a night sitter for the Marie Curie Foundation for quite a while after that, and what I saw strengthened my belief that people should have the choice of an assisted death. I believe that those who force their belief in suffering on other people are cruel and totally unreasonable.
 
Kathleen Friend

Contact us

Should you want to contact any of the people featured in these pages, or wish to share your own story with us, please contact Jo Cartwright:
020 7479 7737 or 07725 433 025
jo.cartwright@dignityindying.org.uk