In a poignant display of courage four women stood on plinths in Parliament Square a few days before the current Assisted Dying bill is ‘killed’ and vowed: ‘We fight on’.
Four terminally ill women told how the ‘sabotage’ of the assisted dying bill by peers in the House of Lords had left them facing a ‘petrifying’ death. Silence descended as Sophie Blake, Elise Burns, Pamela Fisher, and Christie Arntsen, each arrived on a plinth on Parliament Square as a ‘handful’ of Lords try to ‘kill’ the historic bill.
Before the protest they told the Mirror about how they felt “robbed” of a peaceful end. They told how they now face a frightening death, some forced to consider starving themselves to avoid the pain.
Almost a year ago in the same spot campaigners with Dying in Dignity celebrated with “real joy” after the Commons passed the Assisted Dying bill. But this Friday the bill is expected to die after the House of Lords performed what they described as ‘democratic vandalism.’ A group of peers have made more than 1,200 amendments to stall the bill and run it out of time.
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Campaigners had gathered on Wednesday under a statue to honour Suffragette leader, Dame Millicent Fawcett which poignantly reads: ‘Courage Calls to Courage Everywhere’.
That courage was clear for the 500 fellow Dying in Dignity campaigners who watched the four women, several battling pain but determined to ‘fight on’ for the bill which will now be too late to help them.
Pamela Fisher, 64, from Huddersfield, who has terminal breast cancer that has spread to her bones and is now a wheelchair user was provided with a ramp to get onto one of the four plinths. Moments before she told The Mirror how the fear of dying in pain and discomfort has been keeping her awake at night and described the Lords ‘timing out the bill,’ as “beyond belief”.
“I’m terminally ill with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. I’ve actually lived past my prognosis which was about three years. I’m now doing about four in a bit so I’m doing well to be here.
“But I’m not going to get better, I am going to die. I have seen loved ones die of cancer and I know what potentially lies ahead of me and it absolutely scares me to death. I am absolutely… petrified.
“It’s a fear you carry around with you all the time. Most people would think of me as a positive person but it’s a fear that’s with you, it’s like a weight. So even if the bill is brought back in the next session through the Parliament Act and even if it gets through in a year, it is going to be five years before it’s available. So from my point of view… It’s not going to be available for me.
“So what it means for me is potentially going to Switzerland or I will take matters into my own hands and do what a fellow campaigner did and refuse fluids, food and die that way. That will be the choice.“
The Bill when passed would give those terminally ill, mentally competent adults, with six months to live, the choice of an assisted death.
Standing alongside her on a plinth was Sophie Blake, 53, who was diagnosed with stage four secondary breast cancer in May 2022. Her cancer is dormant currently but could return any time. Then she knows that she could be forced to suffer at the end, especially since she is allergic to opioids, which many palliative care drugs contain.
Sophie, a former Sky Sports and BBC TV presenter, from Brighton does not want her 16-year-old daughter Maya to remember her for the suffering at the end and said The Lords had “stolen” a compassionate death from them.
“I think it is quite unforgivable and incredibly upsetting but this is not the end of the bill we will be doing everything we can to bring it back.” Her daughter Maya said: “I saw how it affected her that peace and hope she had been given had been taken away from her by people who were not democratically decided. I know how scared people like my mum are about what happens in the end.”
Christie Arntsen, 58, has lived with incurable metastatic breast cancer for more than a decade and it has just returned for the fifth time.
She says she feels ‘robbed’ by peers and is “infuriated” and promised “this is not going away, we will continue fighting:
“I had a chance that it might go through in time to have a choice at the end of my life. I have incurable cancer and I am running out of treatments so the end is on the horizon for me.
“The thought of an assisted death was a blessing. I very much hoped it would be an option for me but not now. I will have to choose other alternatives. I probably will have to starve myself, it’s horrendous. I can’t believe the lack of empathy.” The mum of two, who lives near Whitney, added: “I’m really upset they have robbed us.”
Elise Burns, 52, has secondary cancer of the lungs, liver and bones which has been ‘eating away’ at her body leaving her in constant pain. She has already beaten her two year prognosis and is desperate to save thousands like her from a drawn out and horrific death. “I haven’t got very long left but I’m hoping for a medical miracle.”
About the Lords, she said: “This is not okay and this is not the will for the people. I am absolutely disgusted and ashamed. How dare they? I would love for them to look me in the eye and say why they think it is okay for me to die in pain.”
Rebecca Wilcox, Esther Rantzen’s daughter, told how her mum so desperately wanted to be with them and is “furious” adding: “This is democratic vandalism, this is sabotage.” She said her mum is palliative now as “the drugs have stopped working which is obviously devastating for us.
“She is devastated this is happening. We will just keep going. The amount of people who have died during my campaigning experiences is extraordinary and heartbreaking
“My mum should be allowed this choice, everyone should be allowed this choice at the end of their lives. We will get this through, for you, for me, for the hundreds of people we’ve heard from in the past but not for mum mum because it will be too late!”
TV presenter Prue Leith said: “My brother had a horrible death in an NHS hospital with not enough pain relief. He had bone cancer and bone cancer doesn’t kill you but it is incredibly painful and you have to wait for it to spread to your heart and to an organ.
“He couldn’t be given any more morphine because the doctors said I can’t do that because he might die. And I said But you’ve just told us he’s dying within three weeks anyway. So, why don’t you put him out of his misery…they couldn’t do it.”
She said her brother was in a ward but it was so distressing for the nurses and other patients he was moved to a private room “where he wouldn’t be heard”. But she was as determined as everyone else at the protest and vowed: “We will change it!”
The bill’s sponsor, Kim Leadbeater, addressing the crowd said: “The fight is not over. Parliament has done you a disservice. And I’m very upset about that, and I’m quite angry about that. But I would also just remind you that it’s not everybody in that building over there who has done that. Lots of us are 100% behind you and behind the campaign and will remain so..We will go again, we will keep fighting.”
Lord Charlie Falconer also promised: “It will be back and it will get through . I’m really, really confident that it will be changed very soon. Not this session, because the bill is going to die on Friday, but I think in the next session.
Nearby Michael Skelton, 77, has been listening to all the speeches, and tells us of his own personal agony.
“Literally right now, our daughter is in the consultant room in Brighton waiting for the results of her latest round of tests. I keep looking at my phone, it doesn’t look good, it may be better than I think, but it doesn’t look good right now.
“She’s allergic to morphine, which is the normal way of relieving pain.” He said it was “outrageous” a few people have “misused the democratic process in the House of Lords to stop all these people having their choice. I’m disgusted.”
“I’m personally upset by the fact that my daughter may die before me, obviously but it’s just unbelievable a few people with some very specific interests stop that choice happening. It’s going to be personally horrible for my family.”
He told how his 56 year old daughter was told six years ago she had breast cancer and three years to live. The cancer had spread to her spine and they were waiting to hear if it had now spread to her liver.
“So every single person here, who’s got secondary breast cancer will probably be dead before they have a choice to take advantage of the bill. That’s outrageous.”
Michael, like everyone who attended, is hoping the end of that Suffragette courage quote will come true which is: “Courage calls to courage everywhere…and its voice cannot be denied”.