A 56-year-old British woman is flying to Switzerland to end her life at an assisted dying facility following the death of her only son.
According to heartbreaking reports, Wendy Duffy, a former care worker from the West Midlands, UK, is speaking openly on the decision to end her life despite the fact she’s not suffering from any terminal illness or debilitating physical condition.
Wendy has paid £10,000 ($13,500 US) to end her life at Pegasos, a Swiss assisted dying clinic, having been unable to recover following the death of her son Marcus, 23, four years ago.
In an interview conducted with Daily Mail journalist Jenny Johnson days before her planned death, Wendy explained that she was steadfast in her decision.
“I won’t change my mind. I know it’s hard for you, sweetheart,” she said. “It will be hard for everyone. But I want to die, and that’s what I’m going to do. And I’ll have a smile on my face when I do, so please be happy for me. My life; my choice.”
She added: “I can’t wait.”
In the interview, Wendy told how her son had passed away in traumatic circumstances four years ago. He had fallen asleep on the sofa while eating a sandwich, and when Wendy returned to the living room, she was met with a sight every parent dreads.
“He was purple,” she said. “I thought, ‘It’s his heart.'”
Medically trained, Wendy began CPR. Paramedics arrived and rushed the 23-year-old Marcus to hospital, where the cause of the issue was discovered. Half a cherry tomato was found lodged in his windpipe; it took specialist equipment to remove it.
“They think he must have fallen asleep when he still had food in his mouth. That’s the only comfort, that there was no struggle,” Wendy said.
With his brain starved of oxygen for too long, Marcus was left brain dead. Wendy sat with him in hospital for five days before his life support machine was turned off.
“In the funeral home, I went in every day, and just sat with him, playing through his Spotify list,” she recalled. “I broke when I saw him in there. My boy, on a metal table. You can’t come back from that, you know.”
“That’s when I died too, inside,” she said. “I’m not the same person now as I was. I used to feel things. I don’t care about anything any more. I exist. I don’t live.”
Following the death of her only son, Wendy sought help through the UK’s National Health Service and private counseling. She was also prescribed antidepressants, which she used in an attempt to take her own life via an overdose nine months after Marcus’ passing.
When she failed to respond to messages, a friend of Wendy’s raised the alarm. Responding officers forced entry into her home, finding a note taped on her bedroom door.
Ultimately, she spent two weeks on a ventilator, temporarily losing the use of her right arm. To this day, she still has no feeling in her little finger.
“I remember coming round and thinking, ‘I’ve f***ed this up’, and I don’t want to go through that again. That’s why I’ve gone for Pegasos,” she explained.
“I did try to get better,” she continued. “But you can take all the pills, you can go to all the counselling in the world – and I did. Ultimately, they can’t help you. They don’t have to live your life, and my life is agony.
“Even though I’ve got family, I’ve got friends, I’ve got my routines. I go to the park. I’m not lonely, but I still sit at night and I talk to Marcus, and I kiss the box I had made for his ashes and I say ‘goodnight, sunshine’ and I think ‘I don’t want to be in this world without you, Markie’. And I don’t. It’s as simple as that.”
In the interview with the Daily Mail, Wendy explained that she had discovered Pegasos, a Swiss assisted dying clinic, in 2024 through a televised investigation into the death of Alastair Hamilton, a 47-year-old who secretly arranged to end his own life.
As per the Manchester Evening News, many Swiss clinics refuse psychiatric-only cases, where there is no physical illness. Pegasos, however, do accept them, provided that applicants meet a set of strict criteria.
“Wow. This is what I need,” Wendy remembered thinking after learning of the clinic. She requested more information and submitted a formal application early last year.
Now, after more than a year of correspondence, including interviews, forms, and the submission of Wendy’s full medical records and therapy history, the grieving mother’s plan to end her own life has been green lit.
According to reports, Wendy has planned every detail of her final hours in detail, as well as what will come after. This includes letters written to her loved ones, the outfit she will wear on the day of her death, and the music that will play.
Wendy’s six siblings are said to know that she has applied to Pegasos, but they have not been informed of the exact timing of her procedure, since anyone perceived to be assisting her (including, for example, driving her to the airport) might face prosecution under UK law.
“They will get it,” Wendy said. “They know. Honestly, 100 per cent, they know that I’m not happy, that I don’t want to be here.”
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