Thank you for taking the time to read this.  This is an incredibly hard and personal subject.  One that I never thought I’d be starting a petition for.  My name is Kate and my Dad has Vascular Dementia.  He was diagnosed almost 5 years  ago.  From the first appointment to find out what was wrong he said to me ‘no matter what it is, if it’s bad, I want you to end it before I get too bad’.  This was my dad, my absolute rock for so many years.  How could he ask me to do such a thing!!  I’m ridden with guilt 24/7 that I can’t and won’t do what he requested.  Why couldn’t he have the choice when he was ok and had capacity to make that decision himself.

As time went on there were countless hospital visits and tests.  It seemed never ending.  It got so bad that my dad became a danger to himself and ended up in a care home.  Still I just did what I thought was best and regardless of what he was diagnosed with he was still my dad.  Now we are a further 3 years down the line after he moved to the care home and he doesn’t know who I am, who my children are (his grandkids).  His quality of life has been diminished by this (one of many) awful diseases.  He is double incontinent, has to walk around on a walking frame (5 years  ago he was walking 6 miles a day just to and from his house to his work), he has become angry, disoriented, and even violent at times through complete frustration.  I have had to make so many hard decisions - do not resuscitate, end of life care plan, if there should be medical intervention for illnesses like pneumonia and Clovid-19 - the list goes on.   The biggest one is not to see him.  Not because I don’t want to but because every time I did see him for about 3/4 days after he would lash out, become aggressive, break down and cry and thought I had died.  Then he’d be ok for a day or 2.  I’d visit and the same thing would happen.  This was not fair on him or the people that care for him.  My dad is only 72

What I’m petitioning for is for people to be given the right to decide when they want to end their life if they have terminal and degenerative diseases/illnesses.  The information will be held in the same way as the organ donation scheme.  People would have the right to change their minds at any time with a mandatory review every 10 years all whilst the person is of sound mind.  

I don’t want my children to have to make the decisions I have to make as it’s soul destroying.  Especially when we have our own voice and thoughts.