Healthy, Retirement-Aged Woman Chooses Death By Assisted Suicide Because Old

The former palliative care nurse, from north London, chose to travel to the Lifecircle clinic in Basel, where Dr Erika Preisig assisted in her suicide on July 21st.

Explaining her decision, Ms Pharaoh said although she was not chronically ill or depressed, she did not feel the same zeal for life she had when she was younger and did not want to become a burden on her family and the National Health Service.

From her experiences dealing with terminally ill patients, Pharaoh knew she was “going over that hill“.

“It’s tragic and odd”.

A healthy former nurse who chose to end her life at a Swiss suicide clinic said she’d rather die than grow old.

“It’s nearly like an opera”.

Pharaoh’s partner of 20 years John Southall told the BBC that Pharaoh always said she never wanted to “endure” old age and that since she suffered from a bad case of shingles five years ago, her energy and enthusiasm was never the same.

“Indeed this view was recently endorsed by Katie Hopkins who called for euthanasia vans to tour the country terminating the elderly and disabled, which she blames for the NHS financial crisis and bed blocking”.

Those against the practice will likely raise fears that softening the law might encourage healthy, active people like Pharoah to end their lives prematurely, the paper reported.

Gill’s children, Caron and Mark, both knew of their mother’s plans although her daughter in particular had struggled to cope with the decision.

“The whole evening was very tranquil and enjoyable”, said John.

Two months before she died, Gill penned a piece entitled My Last Word. “Like all nurses, I have cared for the elderly as well as I could, but there were many occasions when I wondered why we were doing it”, she said earlier. Day by day I am enjoying my life.

A spokesman for Care Not Killing, which campaigns against assisted dying, said: “This is a deeply troubling case and sends a chilling message about how society values and looks after elderly people in the UK”. “A lot of people are very good until they are 70 and then they start sloping off a bit”. “Gill had been thinking about it for years and I had no intention of spoiling it by getting emotional and heavy”.

“It is not his [John’s] choice at all and my kids are backing me, although it is not their choice”, she told the newspaper.

He said: “I have many friends who feel like Gill does but are held back because of not much support from their families, religious issues and the tradition in Britain of having a stiff upper lip so we carry on regardless”. “Intellectually I know where you are coming from but emotionally I am finding it really hard”. “It is not a job you enjoy”, she said.

Mrs Pharaoh arranged her own humanist funeral which will take place later this week.

She was accompanied to the Swiss clinic by her husband, John, who she described as the “love of her life”.