Man with Huntington's disease backs assisted dying bill after mother's suicide

A man who has the same incurable illness which drove his mother to take her own life is calling for people with similar conditions to be given the "agency" to decide when to die.

Josh Cook's mother, Lisa, decided to end her life at 57 rather than face the prospect of a slow, painful death caused by Huntington's disease.

The 33-year-old former semi-professional rugby player, from Huddersfield, inherited the same neurodegenerative condition and knows that he is likely to endure a gradual decline in health that will result in his death.

Mr Cook is supporting a bill brought forward by the Spen Valley MP Kim Leadbeater that would legalise assisted dying.

His mother had campaigned for a law change for more than a decade before her death.

Mr Cook said: "I have a very long, slow decline in my future to an eventual end of choking to death on my own saliva or not knowing who my loved ones are.

"Kim's bill offers the hope for someone like me to take agency and control at a point in my life where I won't have any."

Mr Cook had been out playing rugby when he returned to the home he shared with his mother to find she had taken her life in June this year.

He believes she had not told anyone of her plans because she feared he might face prosecution. Helping someone to end their life can carry a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

Mr Cook said: "She had to do this by herself without support and without anyone to say goodbye."

Ms Leadbeater's bill, which faces a Commons vote on Friday, would allow adults who have mental capacity, are terminally ill and in the final six months of their life to request assistance from a doctor to end their life.

She said: "There are far too many families that I have met that have experience of harrowing deaths, often where people have very good palliative care, but it's not not able to meet their needs.

"It has left them with deep trauma and their families with deep trauma."

MPs rejected a similar bill in 2015 and the latest proposals have proved deeply divisive, with both the justice secretary and health secretary among those to publicly question them.

ITV News has approached all MPs about their voting plans ahead of Friday's debate.

In the Calendar region, of those who responded, 19 said they would vote in favour of the bill, 11 intend to vote against, 18 said they were undecided and one said they would abstain from voting.

Both Mr Cook and his mother were part of campaign group Dignity in Dying, which supports assisted dying for those whose suffering is unbearable.

They argue that, along with good care, dying people who are terminally ill and mentally competent adults deserve the choice to control the timing and manner of their death.

However, the campaign group Assist us to Live believes the government should prioritise reforming social care and palliative care.

Rachael Tomlinson, who has multiple sclerosis, said: "Social care is on it's knees, we want social care to be improved and for and disabled people to receive appropriate support."

Prof Allan House, a former director of the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, believes there needs to be further reassurances about how vulnerable people are protected.

He added: "I would want to do much much more than just decide if they have mental capacity."

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