Annaliese Holland: 'Talking about death and choices shouldn't be taboo'
At age 26, Annaliese (“Annie”) Holland is confronting the end of her life with a clarity and courage that has moved Australians across multiple media outlets.
Vibrant, funny and full of warmth, Annie is also dying — and she has been frank about her intention to access voluntary assisted dying (VAD) in her hometown of Adelaide. It’s a decision she describes as reclaiming dignity and agency after years of relentless suffering.
Annie has lived with Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy (AAG) since childhood. She has been sick since the age of 12 but it took six years to diagnose the rare autoimmune condition that attacks the autonomic nervous system. By the time doctors named it at 18, several of her organs were already failing. Her teeth are deteriorating, she lives with constant pain, and she injects pain medication around the clock.
She hasn’t eaten a real meal in a decade. Instead, she survives on total parenteral nutrition (TPN), fed directly into her bloodstream through the last viable vein in her chest. As she told A Current Affair, “If this vein gets blocked then basically there’s no way of giving me hydration or food… you basically starve to death.”
Annie’s life has been punctuated by more than 25 bouts of sepsis. It was during one of these episodes that she realised, as she told A Current Affair, “I remember feeling more scared to survive than I was to die.”
Annie said she once opposed VAD because she “didn’t understand it at all.” That changed when she met Lily Thai, a young woman her age with the same disease. Lily chose VAD in 2023 and asked Annie to be by her side. Before she died, Lily told her, “You’ll know when you know." Annie didn’t understand then — but she does now.
“This isn’t me just choosing to end it,” she said. “I’m going to die anyway. It’s just me choosing when and how.”
Palliative care specialist and VAD practitioner Dr Chloe Furst, who will guide Annie through her final chapter, said the stigma around VAD is often heightened when the patient is young. “We don’t like talking about death,” she said. “Why prolong suffering and have reduced dignity when we have an option that gives people that choice?” She added that Annie’s age doesn’t diminish the legitimacy of her decision: “Annie’s suffering is no more or less than someone that’s 90.”
Despite everything, Annie is determined to live richly in the time she has left. She has created what she calls her “f--- it list” — a collection of experiences she wants to savour while she can. She has rented her own apartment, flown in a helicopter, watched a friend’s baby being born, and seen her dad’s face as she tried on a wedding dress.
Annie’s message is consistent and powerful: talk about death, talk about VAD choice, and don’t wait to live.
“Talking about death and choices shouldn’t be taboo."
Watch Annie’s interview on A Current Affair
Read more about Annie’s story
Annaliese Holland will die within months. Here is what she wants you to know (ABC News, 29 March 2026)
25-year-old Australian woman Annaliese Holland plans death on her own terms (News.com.au, 17 Nov 2025)