We appreciate all those who have shared their stories so far. If you have a story you would like to share with us, please get in touch via the link below. Your story will not be made public if you would prefer.
If you would like some help to tell your story, please contact us at dwd@dwdnsw.org.au and one of our team will get in touch.
If you find the content of these pages upsetting and would like to speak to someone, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
By Ute Schulenberg It started with a stumble - a peculiar moment at a music festival in November 2017 when Phil McManus found himself unable to get up some stairs. Puzzled, the 64-year-old walked unsteadily back to his seat … he’d only had one beer! It happened again...
Newcastle local, Abbey Egan, was one of the key organisers who lined up six Dying with Dignity stalls at shopping centres across the Newcastle region on Saturday 30 January 2021. Abbey lost her partner Jayde to a prolonged and unnecessarily traumatic death from cervical cancer in...
In early 2017 a terminally ill woman living in NSW wrote to Dying with Dignity to share her story to support the campaign for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill that was due to be debated in late 2017. In August 2020 we tried to contact...
“I can vividly remember the moment my doctor told me that a scan had found cancer in my liver. Just two weeks earlier a ‘precautionary’ colonoscopy had resulted in a surprise bowel cancer diagnosis, but my doctors had been confident we’d caught it early. The...
By Shirley Eason My husband John passed away in April in Tweed Hospital, NSW. He had suffered with Parkinson’s and Lewy Body dementia for five years - that is when he was diagnosed. He hated what his life had become after having been a very energetic...
It's six years since I was diagnosed with lung cancer and still hard to believe how this could have happened to me, a very healthy, 60-year-old non-smoker. Now looking through the narrowing window of treatment options left, I know I don’t want to die as just...
On 9 July 2019, 61-year-old Kerry Robertson became the first Australian to be granted a permit for voluntary assisted dying under the Victorian Voluntary Assisted Dying law. Just six days later, on 15 July, she was dispensed the lethal medication and chose to take it...
In January 2017, Tim Edwards was diagnosed with mesothelioma. He went through four different chemotherapies, none of which impeded his cancer, so by October 2017 he was advised that his illness was terminal in the short term and that he would have an estimated 3 months to live as...
by Dr Alida Lancee MBBS (UWA), FRACGP "Almost two years ago, I decided to stand up for those of us who have died, are dying and will die in a way none of us would find acceptable. Since then, sadly, hundreds of Western Australians have suffered...
Local and international media have been fascinated by the story of the 104 year old scientist from Western Australia who travelled to Switzerland to end his life in May 2018. Professor David Goodall was as an academic, researcher and author in a career that spanned 75 years. He was not...