Dying from soft-tissue cancer, Marie Jansen's husband of 52 years feared a painful, drawn-out death in palliative care. Doctors reassured him his fears were unfounded. They were wrong.

Gary Lobley's partner Jeff died in 1993 from AIDS. “There was nothing left - he was just like a skeleton". Jeff's illness and shocking death had a massive impact on Gary, who for almost 30 years has been advocating for better end-of-life choices.

Allison Bowman’s father Stephen died seven months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Allison says a voluntary assisted death would have brought him the control and peace he wanted in the midst of a terrible situation.

Phil Browne is a registered nurse, palliative care worker and paramedic. Over 40 years, he provided end-of-life care to about 2,000 Queensland patients, witnessing what he calls intolerable suffering. 

"She said, ‘We don’t let animals suffer like this’ and she begged my eldest brother to shoot her. It devastated the family. We felt like failures, that we couldn't do anything to help her."

My sister Gay suffered the most awful, unimaginable and intolerable pain. Her death was grotesque and a reminder that as a civilised society we have to do better. 

Dying from cancer and emphysema, Ian Thau's father kept crying, ‘Please take me’, clearly wanting his life to end, to be out of pain, but with no legal way to achieve his wish.

Lydia*, a nurse of more than 30 years, has watched as countless people die. She is urging Queensland legislators to “listen to the pleas of everyday people”, so terminally ill people have a legal option to end their suffering.

Vicky Crichton says she was broken, listening to the pleas of her mother Brenda to ‘help’ her die in the last five months of her life. Vicky has vowed to fight with everything she has to see voluntary assisted dying laws enacted in Queensland.

Damon Spina was 39 when he was delivered the harrowing news that he wouldn't see his next birthday: He had cancer in his brain, which spread to his lungs and lymph nodes.