Five years later, Max was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma – a soft tissue and bone cancer – aged 25. He told me that, while he respected his mum’s decision to die on her own terms, he wouldn’t make it himself. He wanted to try anything that might allow him to live for as long as possible.
We were all devastated by the diagnosis. He received arduous treatment both here and in the USA, all paid for and organised by the NHS and while this staved off the inevitable for a while, eventually he ran out of options and was given a terminal prognosis in early 2019
He told his consultant that if assisted dying was available in the UK, he may have eventually taken it – but he didn’t want to travel to Switzerland, potentially cutting weeks or even months off his precious life by having to make the journey while he was still well enough.
Many people also go alone because under the current law anyone who accompanies them could face prosecution.