‘My brother was frightened of dying after bowel most cancers battle – I really feel so betrayed’

Becky Scott, whose younger brother Nathaniel Dye, 40, died of cancer in January, said he would’ve been “extremely angry” to know the proposals won’t become law due to delays in the Lords

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The sister of an inspirational teacher who died after a battle with cancer said she feels “betrayed” that plans to legalise assisted dying are set to fall.

Becky Scott, whose younger brother Nathaniel Dye, 40, died of cancer in January, said he would’ve been “extremely angry” to know the proposals won’t become law due to delays in the House of Lords.

In an historic vote last year, MPs voted to legalise assisted dying by 314 to 291 – a majority of 23. Nathaniel, who spoke to The Mirror several times about his passionate campaign for the law change, hailed the “momentous” result at the time.

But the bill has since stalled in the Lords, with a small group of opposing peers accused of filibustering, a tactic used to deliberately waste time in a debate so it falls.

It is expected to run out of time when the parliamentary session ends next month. Ms Scott said: “I feel betrayed by the system really, that people are kind of able to serve their own agendas rather than being representative of the people in the general population.”

In a moving interview, she spoke of her brother’s death and how the option of an assisted death could’ve eased the fear he felt in his final moments.

Speaking through tears, she told The Mirror: “He was still very much enjoying life right up until the end but I know he was scared. I think one of the very last things that he said was: ‘I’m frightened.’”

She said her family were lucky Nathaniel had a peaceful death in the end, adding: “But I also know he, at that point, would absolutely not have wanted to be lying in that position, in the pain that he was in, as incapacitated as he was – and some people are in that position for months.

“I think the thought of being like that for a prolonged period of time would have been terrifying for him.”

The legislation going through Parliament would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill, put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, has already received over 200 hours of scrutiny across both the Commons and the Lords, more than most Government Bills.

Charity Dignity in Dying, which is in favour of assisted dying, said 1% of peers have taken more than a third (34%) of speaking time and that just 790 amendments have been debated out of 1,283 put forward to the bill.

Nathaniel, from east London, whose stage 4 incurable bowel cancer spread to his liver, lungs and brain, shared his tragic personal story of delays waiting for NHS treatment in several major speeches and party political broadcasts to help Labour get elected.

He started campaigning for Labour when the party was in opposition, before later also supporting the campaign group Dignity in Dying. He was awarded an MBE for his campaign work in the 2025 New Year’s Honours list.

The former music teacher raised more than £37,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support through challenges including running the London Marathon while playing the trombone and walking from Land’s End to John o’ Groats.

He fiercely believed that giving terminally ill people the option of an assisted death is the “compassionate” thing to do to stop people from having “horrific” deaths.

And Nathaniel – the youngest of five siblings – was determined to show that supporting assisted dying did not mean giving up on life but was about giving a choice to people who are already facing death. As his siblings said when they announced his death, “Nat was, above all, about life and living.”

Ms Scott, 42, a zookeeper who lives in Newport, Wales, said Nathaniel knew he would not be able to receive an assisted death even if it became law as he was on limited time. “He, pretty much from day one, realised he was on limited time and he had to prove that just because he’d received a terminal diagnosis, that didn’t mean his life was over, because it absolutely wasn’t,” she said.

“He just had a certain timescale on it and even though he was, at points, going through so much trauma, so much pain, he was always thinking about other people; nothing he did was ever really for himself.”

Ms Scott said if Nathaniel were here he would have questioned what more he could have said to convince peers to allow people to have the choice of a “dignified death”. She said her family are so proud of everything he achieved, adding: “Whatever happens in May, he did everything he could. He’s been an integral part of so much of the campaign.

“He would have felt frustrated about the fact that he couldn’t do more. But from our point of view, I just can’t imagine what else he could have done. When he could have absolutely crawled under the duvet and not come out for four years, he decided that absolutely wasn’t what he was going to do.”

She added: “I think for me, it’s really important to know he was a pretty awesome person before that, even though, in his last years of life, he maybe got more of a platform, but before that, he was still an incredible human being that had a massive impact on people’s lives.”

Three-quarters of people (75%) support legalising assisted dying for adults in the UK, according to Opinium’s large-scale polling of more than 10,000 people in the UK in 2024.

Leading campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen, who joined Swiss assisted dying clinic Dignitas after a terminal lung cancer diagnosis, last month told BBC Newsnight she was “begging” peers to pass the bill and not allow “a very small minority” to block it.

But Labour MP Jess Asato, who is against the bill, said: “Any MP that voted to push this bill through would do so knowing that it is unsafe and would harm vulnerable people.”

Lord Falconer, who sponsors the Bill in the Lords, earlier threatened to use the Parliament Act to force the bill through without needing approval from peers.

The Government has insisted it remains neutral on the issue. Asked whether assisted dying plans could return in the next parliamentary session, the PM’s spokesman previously said: “It is for parliament to decide on any changes to the law.”