Wendy Duffy will travel to Switzerland to end her life(Image: Facebook)
A healthy mum is to end her life at a controversial Swiss clinic today, unable to live with the grief of losing her son.
Wendy Duffy, 56, has been approved for assisted dying at the Pegasos clinic unable to live with her heartbreak at the loss of her only child Marcus, 23, four years ago. She had tried to save him after he died after choking on a sandwich.
Her plan to end her life has been a year in the making, paying £10,000, writing letters to her loved ones, choosing a deathbed outfit and picking the music which is the last thing she will hear – she has chosen Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars ‘Die with a Smile’.
Marcus died four years ago and no amount of therapy has helped his mum, who says her life is “agony” without her child. She told the Daily Mail: I don’t care about anything any more. I exist. I don’t live. When Marcus died, I died too, inside. On my deathbed I’ll wear his T-shirt, which still smells of him.”
“I won’t change my mind,” she says. “It will be hard for everyone. But I want to die, and that’s what I’m going to do. And I’ll have a smile on my face when I do, so please be happy for me. My life; my choice.’
Wendy’s son Marcus
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The former care worker from the West Midlands, bought a one way plane ticket today as she has no plans to return from Pegasos, an assisted dying clinic, which has agreed to help her end her life.
She started a digital countdown on her phone once she ‘got the green light’ late last year and says she wants a “nice, gentle” end after seeing some “horrible deaths”. She told the Mail during a previous suicide attempt she ended up perilously close to being a ‘cabbage in a persistent vegetative state’.
Wendy will be cremated in Switzerland and her ashes sent back to her family which she wants scattered by her son’s bench.
In the UK the assisted dying bill would not allow such cases, as it would only be accessible to those who are terminally ill with six months to live and in sound mind. The more famous Dignitas in Switzerland would also have rejected Wendy.
In the Swiss countryside Wendy plans to end her own life picking a song from Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars to listen to(Image: Pegasos)
But Pegasos, according to the Daily Mail, accepted the grieving mum after a panel of experts including psychiatrists passed her application after months of assessment and having had access to her full medical records.
Speaking about her final moments she said: “My only stipulation is that I’ve asked if they can make sure the big windows are open, so my spirit can be free.”
Wendy will be cremated in Switzerland and her ashes will be sent back to her family to be scattered at a bench dedicated to her son Marcus. Her four sisters and two brothers know that she applied to Pegasos but she has been unable to tell them timescale to protect them and will call them when she gets to Switzerland.
Wendy decided to highlight her plans to highlight the “unfairness” of the current system, which puts families in danger.
On Friday the assisted dying bill is being ‘killed’ for now in the House of Lords who have raised more than 1,200 amendments to run it out of time.
But the bill’s sponsor, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater is determined it will return and finally be passed in the next parliamentary sessions. It was approved by the Commons last year and she says there are other MPs ready to reintroduce the bill.
For emotional support you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email **jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.