I was Hamish's mother & I totally loved him...I was not going to let him suffer

Mum says she gave terminally ill son, 7, a fatal dose of morphine

- MARTIN FRICKER

A MUM says she gave her terminally ill seven-year-old son a lethal dose of morphine to end his life and stop his agonising pain.

Antonya Cooper's young lad Hamish had stage 4 cancer when she administered the opioid in 1981.

She said that as his mother she could no longer let him suffer.

Antonya added that Hamish had endured 16 months of "horrendous treatment you wouldn't put a dog through" after being diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 1979.

The mum, 77, now has terminal pancreatic cancer and backs a change in the law to allow assisted dying. She has also joined Swiss assisted-dying organisation Dignitas.

Speaking about Hamish's final moments at home, Antonya said: "We had watched him brave through all that beastly treatment.

"We'd had him for longer than the original prognosis, so the time was right. It was in the middle of the night, were by his bedside.

"I had been entrusted to the possession of that morphine sulphate.

"On Hamish's last night, I said, 'Would you like me to remove the pain?' He said, 'Yes please, Mama'.

"And through his Hickman catheter I gave him a large dose of morphine that did quietly end his life.

"I feel very strongly that at the point of Hamish telling me he was in pain, and asking me if I could remove his pain, he knew. He knew somewhere what was going on.