Stories

In early 2017 a terminally ill woman living in NSW wrote to Dying with Dignity to share her story to support the campaign for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill that was due to be...

It started with a stumble – a peculiar moment at a music festival in November 2017 when Phil McManus found himself unable to get up some stairs. Puzzled, the 64-year-old walked unsteadily back to...

Newcastle local, Abbey Egan, was one of the key organisers who lined up six Dying with Dignity stalls at shopping centres across the Newcastle region on Saturday 30 January 2021. Abbey lost her partner...

“I can vividly remember the moment my doctor told me that a scan had found cancer in my liver. Just two weeks earlier a ‘precautionary’ colonoscopy had resulted in a surprise bowel cancer diagnosis, but...

By Shirley Eason My husband John passed away in April in Tweed Hospital, NSW. He had suffered with Parkinson’s and Lewy Body dementia for five years – that is when he was diagnosed. He...

It’s six years since I was diagnosed with lung cancer and still hard to believe how this could have happened to me, a very healthy, 60-year-old non-smoker. Now looking through the narrowing window of...

On 9 July 2019, 61-year-old Kerry Robertson became the first Australian to be granted a permit for voluntary assisted dying under the Victorian Voluntary Assisted Dying law. Just six days later, on 15 July,...

In January 2017, Tim Edwards was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He went through four different chemotherapies, none of which impeded his cancer, so by October 2017 he was advised that his illness was terminal in the short term...

by Dr Alida Lancee MBBS (UWA), FRACGP “Almost two years ago, I decided to stand up for those of us who have died, are dying and will die in a way none of us...

Local and international media have been fascinated by the story of the 104 year old scientist from Western Australia who travelled to Switzerland to end his life in May 2018. Professor David Goodall was as an academic, researcher...

Paul Gabrielides was the husband of Annie Gabrielides, who was the ‘face’ of Dying with Dignity NSW’s 2017 campaign for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill (2017). Annie started the petition on Change.org “Don’t leave me trapped in a dying body – allow me to...

Local and international media were fascinated by the story of the 104 year old scientist from Western Australia who travelled to Switzerland to end his life in May 2018. Dr David Goodall, described as Australia’s oldest working...

Charlie and Francie Emerick from Portland, Oregon had been married for 66 years and were both terminally ill when they died together in their bed on 20 April 2017. They had both taken lethal...

Noel Conway, now aged 68, is a retired college lecturer who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a form of motor neurone disease) in November 2014. His condition is incurable and terminal. Noel Conway and...

Tragically, the beautiful and courageous Annie Gabrielides passed away on 16 January 2018, aged 55. Her final moments were at home (her paradise) surrounded by her loving family. Annie had Motor Neurone Disease (MND)...