A woman in great pain has said people should have the option of assisted dying as “death could be kinder” than continued suffering.

Yesterday, actor Brendan Gleeson talked to The Hard Shoulder about mortality and how the hospice care his parents had received had been “very beautiful to be honest”. 

“It just felt that they had been sent on their journey with such care,” he said. 

Listener Audrey Farrelly said she found the interview “so relatable” and was glad such an important issue had been discussed.

“I suppose you asked the question to Brendan about mortality and he said he’d be delighted to talk about mortality,” she said. 

“I thought we really ought to be delighted to talk about mortality because it’s the only thing we’re all guaranteed.” 

'I’m already suffering daily'

In 2013 on her daughter’s 18th birthday, Ms Farrelly collapsed and was rushed to hospital. 

“I underwent surgery on December 26th,” she recalled. 

“I was told a few months later that I’d failed spinal surgery syndrome and six months after that, I was diagnosed with chronic neuropathic pain disease.”

Since then, Ms Farrelly has had several operations and remains in great pain. 

The experience has led her to reflect on her own mortality and she decided to contact End of Life Ireland in 2021 - a group that campaigns for the introduction of assisted dying. 

“I talked to Mum and Dad about it and told them that I didn’t want to suffer at the end of my life,” she said. 

“So, it kind of opened up the subject at home. 

“I spoke very openly that I was not suicidal, I just don’t want to endure any more pain [than the pain] I’m already going through when I’m ready to go.” 

Close up of a patient's hand. 7 November 2016. Image: Alamy.com

Ms Farrelly said she is “not afraid to die” but worries about “how I’ll die [and] how I’ll suffer if I’m already suffering daily”. 

“When people get a terminal diagnosis and are told, ‘You’ve only six months to live’ - I really think that death could be kinder,” she said. 

“I think we could allow them to have that choice - not everyone has to make the choice but let the choice be there.

“So that if somebody says, ‘I’ve really given this my all and can I just have everybody around and let’s make this a celebration of my life and I can say goodbye to people while I still have my dignity intact?’” 

Earlier this year, the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying recommended the legalisation of the practice in Ireland.

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Main image: A nurse holding the hand of her patient. Picture by: Alamy.com