A 63-year-old grandmother who travelled to a Swiss clinic to end her life and escape the 'torture' of motor neurone disease left a final wish for her family to continue the fight for assisted dying. Gaynor Griffiths died at the Pegasos clinic in April, with her husband Gary, 64, and children Ami and Alex by her side. Before her death, she told them: "Please carry on this fight for me."
Gaynor, described as "one in a million", flew to Switzerland days before the assisted dying bill ran out of time on April 24. MPs had backed the bill last year, but more than 1,000 amendments hampered its progress in the House of Lords. Now, as the Terminally Ill (End of Life) Bill goes to Parliament for a second reading this month, her family are honouring her final wish.
A letter to protect her family
Before leaving the UK, Gaynor left her family a letter, telling them not to open it until after her death. In it, she explained "the decision to end my life was mine alone", protecting them from any legal problems back home. She wrote about her 42-year marriage, her children, and grandson Rory, saying: "We have had a happy and fortunate life together."
She described MND as "torture" and wrote: "I'm dying, I want to die under my terms before I become a mind living in a dead body... I believe just existing is not living." She ended the letter thanking her husband for accompanying her on "the last of our trips together".
'The hardest thing I have ever done'
Her daughter Ami, 33, described the final goodbye to Rory, Gaynor's three-year-old grandson, as "awful", adding: "This country's laws stopped her from having a good death in an environment she loved." Gary explained Gaynor was diagnosed with MND last October after experiencing 'foot drop' and leg weakness. By December she was living in a wheelchair, and by March she could feel her arms and hands starting to go.
Her son Alex, an NHS emergency medical technician, described her last moments as "peaceful" but said travelling to Switzerland with his mum was "the hardest thing I have ever done". He added: "I have seen the reality of what dying can look like... But perhaps we need to ask ourselves whether making an inevitable death as comfortable as possible is always the same thing as allowing someone to have a good death."
Paul Blomfield, Chair of Dignity in Dying and former Labour MP, said: "Gaynor Griffiths' experience highlights the issues MPs face on 11th September. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, she knew exactly what she wanted - to die on her own terms at home, surrounded by the people she loved. But the current law denied her that choice." He added that the law "doesn't stop people like Gaynor from seeking an assisted death, it simply exports it to a clinic in Switzerland". MPs have already voted for change twice, and on September 11 they can "send a clear message back to the Lords on behalf of families like Gaynor's".
