Sisters whose mum travelled to Dignitas 'over the moon' as MPs vote in favour of assisted dying bill

• ITV News Meridian's Political Correspondent Kit Bradshaw spoke to sisters Catie and Becky following the vote

Two sisters, whose mother travelled to Switzerland to end her life after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease, say they are "relieved" that others may not have to go through what they have.

On Friday 29 November, MPs voted in favour of a bill that would legalise assisted dying for people who are terminally ill in England and Wales.

In a historic step towards backing the right for adults with less than six months to live to choose to end their own lives, a total of 330 MPs voted for the bill and 275 voted against.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was brought forward by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater.

It came after an, at times, highly emotional four-and-a-half hour debate in the Commons with MPs from across the political divide making impassioned arguments for and against.

Catie, from Didcot in Oxfordshire, and her sister Becky travelled up to Westminster on Friday.

Speaking after the vote, in Parliament Square, Catie said: "Relieved, just relieved, and so so happy for other people moving forward.

"I know this is just the next step, we've got the committee stage, but the debate is carrying on and it's the furthest this debate has got and we're just so relieved that hopefully in the future nobody has to go through what we've been through. Relieved and hopeful.

"We carry our mum with us everywhere, everything we do is for her, everything we do is for our dad and what he went through just to carry out her dying wish.

"We couldn't be there to say goodbye to mum and we hold that in our minds that we want no-one else to be in that position.

"She was somebody who very much believed that people should be able to follow what they believe and she would have been very much for choice."

Catie and Becky's mum Alison paid £15,000 to travel to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to end her life, which was her wish.

Becky said: "Over the moon. It's something that I didn't think we expected, but very pleased. Once people have made that decision, we think families should be with them, and we couldn't be, but hopefully now other people can be."

• ITV News Meridian's Natalie Verney spoke to Catie about her mum ahead of Friday's vote

Alistair Thompson, Care Not Killing, said: "Naturally we're disappointed that MPs have decided to let the bill progress. We felt the bill was being brought forward with indecent haste.

"MPs haven't had the proper time to scrutinise it and we know because it's based on the Oregon legislation, the US state which has assisted suicide, that there are massive problems with it.

"For example, the definition of terminal illness in Oregon doesn't just include people with cancer, but things like diabetes, arthritis and even eating disorders such as anorexia."

He added: "Choice is illusionary, because people shouldn't be in pain and rather than handing people the keys to the drugs cabinet what we should be doing is saying, 'Why haven't you got the proper treatment?', 'Why haven't you got the proper medication actually to have a dignified end?', and that's before we get onto the issue of prognosis.

"There have been lots of people, very qualified doctors, palliative care experts who have been saying that actually you can't give an accurate six month diagnosis. You can do hours and days, but actually six months is pretty meaningless."

• Alistair Thompson, Care Not Killing

It is the first vote and debate of its kind in the House of Commons since 2015, when the last bid to legalise assisted dying was voted down.

The result does not mean the bill will become law yet as this is only the second reading. There are several more stages of scrutiny that the bill will have to go through first in both the House of Commons and House of Lords, meaning any change in the law would not be agreed until next year at the earliest.

Under Leadbeater's bill, for a person to be eligible, they must be over the age of 18 and have the mental capacity to make the choice, which must be signed off by at least two doctors and a High Court judge.

Assisted dying is currently banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

The last time MPs voted on the issue in 2015, the bill was defeated by 330 votes to 118, but the composition of the Commons has significantly changed since then following this year's general election with more Labour MPs sitting.

A total of 605 out of 650 MPs voted on the bill today. It was a free vote, meaning the government's position on this was officially neutral.

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