My mum deserved a dignified end. Instead it was so miserable

JOY Roberts has backed assisted dying after seeing her mother plead for someone to end her life while in the grip of motor neurone disease.

- Aisling Grace

Joy, 68, had to watch mum Irene Wright, who was diagnosed with MND in 2020 at 89, lose the use of her limbs and the ability to eat, speak or go to the toilet herself.

Irene died in her sleep aged 90, but Joy said: "She was not happy. She talked about the fact she wanted to die, she wanted to go, she had had enough.

"All she kept on saying was, 'Put me to sleep, just put me to sleep, why can't I just be put to sleep?' She did not want to go through that."

Joy, who is semi-retired and based in Dorking, Surrey, said her mother's "very simple" pleasures in life, including cooking and gardening, were very quickly taken away from her.