Death with dignity (From Stroud News and Journal)

Death with dignity

A STROUD man has told how he was prepared to help his wife to die and face the consequences after she was diagnosed with a debilitating illness.

Geoff Guy of Cashes Green relived the painful memories of the death of his beloved wife Penny this week after a Somerset man hit the headlines because he intends to starve himself to death rather than struggle on with a debilitating disease.

The news echoed the death of Penny and prompted Geoff to telephone BBC Points West on Monday night during a debate on Euthanasia.

On the programme, Mr Guy called for the law on mercy killing to be changed to allow people to help a loved one to die with dignity.

His wife Penny lost the will to live in 1998 after being diagnosed with the crippling disease and was dead within three weeks

Her muscles, lungs and diaphragm were all ravaged.

Yet her mental faculties were unaffected and all she could do was watch her body deteriorate, ravaged by the disease.

"That's what makes it so hard," said Geoff. "I did work out how I would suffocate her with a pillow if it came to that."

"I would have done it and faced the consequences.

"We had been married nearly 50 years and there's no way I could have sat back and watched her suffer."

For more on this story and much more Five Valleys news, see this week's SNJ