'My mum's eight days of pure hell'

Cancer death family 'left traumatised'

- BY HANNA GEISSLER Health Editor

A DAUGHTER whose mother had eight days of “pure hell” before she died of cancer has said the memory still haunts her family nine years on.

Christine Follows, 68, is one of dozens of readers who responded to Dame Esther Rantzen’s appeal in this newspaper for personal stories in support of assisted dying.

In a handwritten letter, Christine told how her mum, Freda, was diagnosed with peritoneal cancer after experiencing abdominal pain, difficulty eating and weight loss.

Christine of Doncaster, South Yorks, wrote: “Her condition deteriorated rapidly and, although she was very stoic, her pain levels increased to the point where she was started on morphine.