'I watched my wife suffocate to death as I couldn't grant her last wish'

Warwick Jackson, 63, is haunted by the memory of Ann’s final days spent gasping for breath and begging for help to end her agony - he is calling for assisted dying to be legalised

A grieving husband who watched his beloved wife suffocate to death today told how she begged him to end her life.

Warwick Jackson, 63, is haunted by the memory of Ann’s final days spent gasping for breath and begging for help to end her agony. The couple, from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, were devastated when medics told Ann, 61, she had Stage 4 peritoneal cancer. She fought for nearly 18 months and was told she would die peacefully under the watchful supervision of palliative care nurses.

But their tragic story was today relayed to Parliament in a speech by MP Kim Leadbeater as she launched a bid to legalise assisted dying. Ms Leadbeater told MPs how Ann "spent four days gasping and choking, remaining awake throughout despite being given the maximum dose of sedatives, and eventually died of suffocation".

Parliament heard Ann "had begged Warwick to end her life, but as he stood over her with a pillow, he could not do what she asked as he didn't want that to be her final memory of him".

Today - sat in the shadow of Westminster as MPs debated the Assisted Dying Bill - Warwick said: "It was like a horror movie. It was like watching someone being waterboarded. It's a horror movie but it's happening in real time to someone you love. I just wanted it to end. I couldn't bring myself to finish Ann's life, even though she was suffering."

Ann, who ran a car lease company with her husband of 37 years, died in August 2020. The brutal way she died left Warwick with the agonising image of his wife writing in agony and gasping for air.

He said: "It's taken a long time to come to terms with that. Ann and I were together for 37 years, you have to be pretty close to be together for that time, running a business together and spending pretty much 24 hours a day together. On Christmas 2018 we were having a walk and Ann ran short of breath. She was physically fit, so it was a surprise.

"She had an X Ray and they found fluid on her lungs. It was an early sign that she had cancer. She was brave enough to go for chemotherapy but on the third round they said it wasn't working and she was sent home to die.

"It was the first time that we knew it was incurable. It brought out the best of her, she was incredibly strong. She was more concerned about how I was going to feed myself than about herself. I spoke to her doctors and her palliative carers and told them about my concerns, because I was worried it would become an issue with breathing.

"I asked if she was in for a rough ride. They said she would probably die in her sleep. I told her that to make her feel better, to reassure her, but ultimately it was a lie. I have to live with that."

Warwick is now backing Ms Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. He said: "There needs to be assisted dying to stop the number of traumatic deaths like Ann's."