She may be best known for being a judge on The Great British Bake Off but Prue Leith is also a campaigner and patron of Dignity in Dying, often speaking out in support of the assisted dying bill.
Leith initially spoke out about assisted dying because she watched her elder brother David — who had bone cancer — “screaming in pain” before he died.
She told Yahoo UK: “I saw my elder brother die a miserable, painful, protected death, in an NHS hospital, begging for help to die, screaming in pain, eventually drowning in phlegm, having decided to refuse antibiotics so the next bout of pneumonia would kill him.”
The Bake Off star spoke to Yahoo about assisted dying ahead of the debate in parliament on 29 November which marks the first attempt to change the law in a decade. Assisted dying is currently illegal in the UK and can be prosecuted as murder or manslaughter.
Leith said: “I’d never thought of it [assisted dying] before David got bone cancer, so no, I didn’t have an opinion. But I have always been in favour of people being in charge of their own lives, of thinking for themselves, of being allowed to do so.
“Of course if assisted dying had been legal, David would have taken it. He wanted to die, and frankly, anyone watching him would have wanted that for him. We would not allow a dog to suffer anything like that.”
Leith has been campaigning about assisted dying for more than a decade but she doesn’t really think about the response from others. She said: “I started campaigning over a decade ago, before I was so well known. And I don’t read social media so I avoid seeing the abuse I get, though I am aware of it.”
Who is speaking out on assisted dying?
Joining the fight for the cause vocally more recently has been Blur drummer Dave Rowntree who called the UK’s assisted dying law “psychopathic” after his terminally ill ex-wife died at Dignitas — a Swiss non-profit organisation that provides physician-assisted dying in Switzerland.
This year, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he believes there are “grounds for changing the law”.
But it is Childline founder Esther Rantzen — who has stage four lung cancer — leading the charge with her campaigning and Leith praised the presenter for her bravery.
“We are all influenced by people we respect,” Leith said. “So obviously I’m delighted these public figures support the bill. I’m particularly impressed by Esther’s efforts. If you are ill, the last thing you feel like going is campaigning, but she has always been a strong, outspoken brave woman and her instincts are to help people.”
On the other side of the debate is Silent Witness actor Liz Carr who revealed the “chilling” reality of an assisted dying clinic in her BBC documentary Better Off Dead? earlier this year.
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Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip
Leith filmed her own Channel 4 documentary on assisted dying with her son Danny Kruger, a Conservative MP who is against it. In 2023’s Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip, the mother and son took a trip to North America — where assisted dying is legal in ten jurisdictions — to see if they could resolve their differing opinions.
More than a year later, they still haven’t resolved their differences on the issue. Leith said: “We no longer talk about it. No point. Neither of us will change our mind. It has never been difficult, because we both respect each other and love each other.”
She added: “Of course I would rather Daniel, who is intelligent and persuasive, was on my side in this discussion. But I respect his opinion. He is religious, which I am not, and I think that fundamentally changes the way he looks at things. His opposition is more cerebral than mine. He is worried about three things: People being coerced into dying, the ‘slippery slope’ by which the law will be constantly widened, and a negative effect on palliative care, which will then get worse.
“In fact all these three fears — which are the main planks of the opposition to Assisted Dying — were dismissed by the cross-party parliamentary Health and Social Care Select committee who spent months studying what goes on in jurisdictions where assisted dying is legal.
“They found there was no evidence of coercion, of the slippery slope or of diminished palliative care, in fact in Australia, written into the bill that became law, was a vote of more money for palliative care, with an improved service as a result. We could do the same here.”
Speaking up about assisted dying
It remains important for Leith to speak up about her beliefs about assisted dying because she feels she can do public good. She said: “No one wants to talk about death, but we should. If we don’t debate the issue and pass the law we condemn thousands of people to a miserable end, and leave their families traumatised by the memory.”
She added: “I’m lucky to have some profile and reputation and I hope the public knows I am not a loony. So if I can use my influence to get people to think about the issue and tell their MPs how they want him/her to vote, then I should. It’s a real chance to do a public good, to allow the choice of whether to live or to suffer, to dying people. We need to take it.”
As well as the TV show, Leith wrote an open letter to party leaders and she vows to continue to campaigning. She said: “People sometimes tell me that something I’ve done has changed their mind, but I’d no real idea [of the impact I’ve had]. But I shall keep at it. I will add a few posts to Instagram and Twitter, and keep banging on about it until we get the bill into parliament for a final reading.”
She added: “But what really makes people realise how important it is to give people the choice to end an unbearable life, is seeing someone die a horrible one. I think most of the Dignity in Dying supporters have witnessed loved ones going through hell. And I think most opponents of the idea have never seen anyone go through that.”
No one needs to die in a strange room alone at Dignitas
So what should the assisted dying law in the UK look like? “I’m not certain, and I would like MPs to debate it and amend if necessary. I think it should definitely be limited to adults, of sound mind and terminally ill,” she said.
Leith has hope that a change in the UK assisted dying law would be positive and it would stop Britons dying in alone without their family at Dignitas, in Switzerland.
She added: “It would save the nearly 7,000 people a year for whom palliative care does not relieve the pain, from an agonising death.
“It would also mean that no one need be driven to suicide, which often doesn’t work and is appalling for the family, and it would mean no one has to travel expensively to Switzerland (on their own because it is illegal to aid someone intending to die) and probably earlier than they’d ideally want to (because you have to be well enough to make the journey) to die in a strange room in an industrial estate outside Zurich.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org