Dame Jenni Murray advocates assisted dying reform after personal tragedies

The broadcasting legend, presenter of Woman’s Hour for 33 years, is now passionately supporting our push for change in the law to allow assisted dying, saying “it is obviously the right thing to do”.

Barnsley-born Dame Jenni, 73, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006 on the same day her beloved mother Winifred died of Parkinson’s.

And the pain and suffering she witnessed as she clung to life in a care home, but begging to die, has stayed with her ever since, reassured her outdated laws are callous and inhumane.

She said: “I have heard from so many people and families who have suffered indescribable pain and distress.”

“In my case, with my mother, it was Parkinson’s and in the final year of her life she was in a home. I would go there every weekend and she would beg me, ‘Jen, please help me die’.”

“She was in pain and was not the woman she wanted to be. She couldn’t do anything, and there was nothing I could do for her. I had to tell her over and again there was nothing I could do and it has haunted ever since. It is what made me a campaigner on this issue.”

As the straight-talking host of the must-listen BBC Radio 4 show between 1987 and 2020, Dame Jenni led the way highlighting a raft of taboo subjects with candour and humour, laying bare her own health battles and struggles with menopause, HRT, and weight loss.

Forthright Dame Jenni, raised a Christian and made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 Birthday Honours, had a sleeve gastrectomy in 2015 and lost more than 4 stone.

Her searingly honest assessment of her own battles has been instrumental in helping millions of women and putting change on the agenda.

She is now backing the Daily Express and charity Dignity in Dying to reform the law. Since our petition was launched two weeks ago almost 80,000 people have signed, demanding a Parliamentary debate and vote. MPs last voted on the issue in 2015, but refused to amend the Coroners and Justice Act which outlaws the practice as murder or manslaughter.

Fighting back tears mum-of-two Dame Jenni said: “My father Alvin adored my mother, but he did not acknowledge was suffering from lung cancer. I had no idea.

“I was undergoing chemotherapy and going over to see dad as often as I could. I remember some friends suggesting we went away for a weekend to celebrate my birthday so I rang dad and said I was sorry but wouldn’t be able to visit. I was literally getting ready when I got a call from his neighbour saying, ‘you must come over – we are worried because we haven’t seen him’ so I cancelled.”

“When I arrived I found him in his bed unshaven and unwashed, he hadn’t eaten or had anything to drink. My father was trying to take his own life. He had taken the opportunity of me not coming over to lay in bed and starve himself to death.

“He eventually went to hospital on my insistence and was found to have advanced lung cancer. He just wanted to go. He didn’t want to be without my mother, he was in some pain and distress and simply wanted to die.

“I managed to find a place in a hospice and he had wonderful palliative care for two weeks. I was with him when he died. I held his hand and he was peaceful and that’s the way it should have been. It happened naturally. If only I had been at my mother’s side.”

As the law currently stands those enduring unimaginable suffering, but who desperately seek release, are kept in pain while family and friends who help bring lives to end face lengthy jail terms.

The injustice has seen record numbers, including grandmother-of-five Dame Esther Rantzen, 83, who has stage 4 lung cancer, sign up to Swiss suicide clinic Dignitas.

Some 300 terminally ill people in the UK are forced into taking their lives every year in a bid to end their suffering. Assisting a terminally ill person to end their life carries a 14-year jail sentence.

Dame Jenni, who has two sons, said: “My older boy is a vet and he knows exactly the right way to deal with sick animals. I have had dogs all my life and my favourites are Chihuahuas.”

“We had one called Butch and my son said, ‘look he’s getting old, he’s in quite a lot of pain and I think it’s time’. I took him to my vet, I held him while he died in my arms. It was heartbreaking because I loved him and I didn’t want him to go, but it was time and it was a peaceful, quiet, loving death. It was how it should be.”

Dame Jenni is the latest to put her name to our petition which, if it passes 100,000 signatures, will force a Commons vote.

She said: “It’s awful Dame Esther has terminal lung cancer and has no choice other than going to Switzerland. It is a tragedy for anyone who has thought of this, because it’s expensive so not everyone can manage it, it’s incredibly complicated and the worst thing is there is no option without putting family members or friends at risk of prosecution.”

“The way things are is utterly inhumane. I consider it my life to live and it ought to be my life to end, in whatever way I choose.”

“I know if I were suffering in the way my mother suffered I would want the choice of assistance to take my life with my sons, husband and the people with whom I am closest there.”

“Just look at the number of people in this country who support this change. To me it just gives someone with a terminal disease a release from pain and suffering and, to me, is quite obviously the right thing to do.”