Christie's story

I value the small things in life I value love and my family and my children and I value more than anything the ability to live a normal life [Music] I was diagnosed in 2013 before I even had any mammograms they'd already pulled us aside and said it was definitely cancer and then finally we heard the news that it had spread to some of my bones you know the four of us sort of holed up together and just loved crying and hugging and just dealing with it as best we can when you get a diagnosis where you know it's unlikely you'll survive I think everybody would think about the end so then I started researching Dignitas as an option along with various suicide options you know I did a lot of research and I decided I'm in the situation now where the only way I can have the end of life that I want would be through an assisted dying strategy it took John a bit longer to understand why I was going to that place at that stage of treatment and the disease when Kristie began talking about assisted dying I wasn't ready at all I then began to put myself in her position and began to understand it more I also began to see that towards the end of life you would not want to be with those that you valued with this loss of self-respect and dignity that comes with intense pain or medication that takes you out of yourself so what she's deciding to do is to to leave the party early on terms where she can [Music] I want to live as long as I can and I you know I love life and particularly my life but when it comes to that point where I am ready to be in a hospice or something because I really am at the end of my life and very ill that's the point where for me I would have so much reassurance by saying okay I love you all I've had a wonderful life and now it's time to say goodbye so as a consequence of that I live every day thinking about the end of my life when I discovered that assisted dying wasn't an option I just felt that I was in a position to stand up and use my voice to just tell people john has totally got and is behind not only me but the campaign as well it matters we all believe that choice should be there for terminally ill people I think this will really help people heal a lot faster so I think it will completely change the landscape of how people grieve I want to carry on living as long as I possibly can and I will become terminally ill at some point and so I will be dying anyway and in the last weeks of my life when my health has really deteriorated I would really like the choice to say that's enough now let me die let me die my way [Music] you

Channel: Dignity in Dying

Views: 51,641

Rating: 4.86906 out of 5

Keywords: dignity in dying, assisted dying, human rights, christie's story, compassion, terminal illness, cancer

Id: oQTETQAU2Ks

Length: 3min 58sec (238 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 24 2019