Maretta Bane's brother
I have just written the following email to five of our MPs:
"My younger brother died in a horrendous and extremely painful way from pancreatic cancer in less than 10 months. We sat with him in a palliative care ward for over 3 weeks in St. Vincents hospital in Sydney before we managed to get him to his home to die. There was no hope and the last 6 weeks of his life was the worse thing you could ever imagine going through.
I challenge ANY MP to sit and watch the dying, their pain, their hopelessness.
My brother said, "I need to hurry up and get this over with". After watching our father die after a slow 3-year battle with lung cancer, he said he never ever wanted to suffer like that.
Unfortunately for him he still had 17 more painful days to go of agony.
In this day and age, people should be allowed the choice. A doctor should be allowed to help without being charged.
My brother could have had "a good death" surrounded by family who loved him so much. (They all live in Ireland except for me so it was extremely hard for them all to come to say goodbye.)
Watching him suffer so much is something our family will never get over.
My husband's father who was 98 died a slow death of no food or water. He did not want anything. Once again it took him weeks to die.
Everybody should be allowed choice."
Maretta Bane, Albany WA