British co-authors Anna Wharton and Wendy Mitchell penned three bestselling books before Wendy, diagnosed in 2014 with early-onset Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, chose VSED to escape the final stages of her disease. Shortly after Wendy’s death in February 2024, Anna wrote a post for her blog, White Ink, about medical aid in dying in the UK–an issue about which Mitchell felt very strongly. Anna’s post includes a video that Mitchell recorded only weeks before her death, intended for readers of her and Anna’s final book, One Last Thing: How to Live with the End in Mind.
“It is incredible to me that we pay so little attention to death when it is something that affects 100% of the population,” Wendy said in the video, “regardless of wealth, intelligence, ethnicity, or religion. That’s why I wanted to talk about it in this book.”
For Mitchell, the right to choose the last chapter of the story of her life was crucial. “I don’t want dementia to take me into the later stages,” she explained; “that stage where I’m reliant on others for my daily needs, where others will decide for me when I shower or may insist that I have a bath–which I hate. I don’t want someone else to tell me when I eat, or what I eat, or decide by the look on my face whether I am happy or sad. That is no life for me.”
To view the full video Wendy Mitchell recorded, check out “My Friend Wendy’s Case for Assisted Dying to be Legalised” at the blog White Ink.