A 63-year-old woman with motor neurone disease who ended her life at a Swiss clinic has left her family with a final request: to continue campaigning for a change in the law.
Gaynor Griffiths travelled to the Pegasos clinic in April with her husband Gary, 64, and their children Ami and Alex. As they told her how much they loved her, she said: "Please carry on this fight for me. Try and get them to change their minds. We can try and make a difference."
Family speaks out to honour wish
The family are now speaking publicly for the first time to honour that wish, ahead of the second reading of the Terminally Ill (End of Life) bill in September. Gaynor supported the proposed law that would give terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the choice to end their lives, reported The Mirror.
MPs backed the bill in 2025, but more than 1,000 amendments in the House of Lords delayed it until time ran out in April, just days after Gaynor had flown abroad.
Letter left for family
Before her death, Gaynor left a letter for her family, asking them not to open it until after she died. In it, she stressed the decision was hers alone, protecting them from any legal issues at home.
She wrote: "Dad and I have been married for 42 years, we love each other very much… We've been blessed to have you two wonderful kids… and now Rory." She spoke of the good health, homes and holidays she had enjoyed, adding that MND was "torture" and she could not bear becoming "a mind living in a dead body."
Final moments at the clinic
Before leaving their Kent home, Gaynor hugged her three-year-old grandson Rory and told him: "I love you to the moon and back" — their special phrase. Daughter Ami said: "The goodbye was awful." She added that UK laws forced her mum to die abroad instead of in the environment she loved.
Diagnosed last October after developing foot drop, Gaynor's condition worsened rapidly. By December she was in a wheelchair; by March her arms and breathing were failing. After a hospital stay with pneumonia she told her family she wished she had not survived the night.
At the clinic on April 18 the family spent final moments together. Gaynor pulled the cord herself. Son Alex, an NHS emergency medical technician, described her death as peaceful and said: "I am incredibly proud of her." Ami still talks to "Nanny star" with Rory every night, ending with the same words: "We love you to the moon and back."
