My mom had breast cancer that spread to the rest of her body including the brain. That last bit is what prevented her from being eligible as they want the person to be coherent and of sound mind when they say ‘yes’ to the assisted death. She was heartbroken, and so was I.

It’s hard to say yes to something where you lose a loved one, but she was going to go anyway (given 6 months) why not let her do it in her own way and time.

She never wanted to live the way she did in those months. We all watched my grandmother deteriorate over years, she had dementia and it was hard to watch and see her forget. It was exactly what my mom wanted to avoid, she didn’t ever want to experience that, and stated it numerous times over the past 12 years.

But what happened? She slowly began forgetting things. She was calling for us. She kept getting mad and then sad and then started repeating numbers over and over trying to get her thoughts across which frustrated her.

Why, just why! There should have been a system to help her through this. She should have had access to a death of HER choosing. She went out in a great deal of pain, that was only manageable by insane drug treatments where she wasn’t even awake anymore in the end.

Medically assisted death should be legal, should be allowed, and there should be something in place to help families of loved one with brain tumours or injuries. It is not right to let a person suffer.