Sara Starkey, 72, travelled to Switzerland with her husband Andrew Tyler, 70, who suffered from advanced Parkinson’s Disease. He died in April 2017 at Dignitas with Sara by his side. Tyler, a former music writer, was diagnosed with the Parkinson’s Disease 10 years ago. His condition – more specifically his back pain – had worsened and surgeons said there was nothing they could do to help. He filmed his final week battling Parkinson’s in a video blog calling for assisted dying to be legalised in Britain. Starkey said that she has no regrets about the way her husband ended his life, except that she would have wished for him to have been in his own home with his family and dogs around him.
In the interview with UK TV program This Morning, Starkey said “This is what is so wicked about this country, you can starve yourself and dehydrate yourself to death, and if you can afford it and you have got the savvy to go to Switzerland you can do that, but what about all the other people? Why do they have to sit and watch this? I am desperately, desperately sad . I knew for two years, I knew he was suffering …What happens with people who have to watch? If I’m as sad as I was knowing all this, how do people feel who actually watch someone they love, two weeks it can take”
Click for story in the Daily Mail 16 August 2017