Broad ‘couldn’t have stopped’ ill wife’s suicide

Last week a coroner ruled that Michelle Broad, 60, took her own life as she deteriorated during a battle with motor neurone disease.

After being diagnosed with the disease in May 2009 Michelle’s health had steadily declined.

“The body was failing her. The mind was still working but the body was failing her and that was the crucial factor,” Michelle’s husband Chris told Channel 4 News.

“She was struggling to text and to type and that I suppose was the last section, the last piece in the jigsaw. She was struggling to walk, she was struggling to talk and eat – she was being fed through a tube.

“If she was no longer able to communicate vie email or via text then that was her life gone. I think she had got to the stage where she realised that was very soon going to be the case and that the timing was right to leave us.”

“I would have liked, I think, to have been there. To have held her hand. But it wasn’t possible”

Mr Broad, a former England cricketer, found his wife at their home on 6 July. She had taken a fatal combination of the drugs Diazepam and Tramadol and later lost her life in hospital.

“For 18 months I think we’d both been building up to this. We knew there was not going to be a happy ending,” Mr Broad told Channel 4 News.

“Of course it was shocking and it was very, very difficult to deal. But actually keeping in mind that this is what Miche wanted and that she clearly was not enjoying her life – I took a huge amount of solace that from the fact that she had done what she wanted.”

Mr Broad told Channel 4 News of his regret that his wife died alone and that he was not able to be at his wife’s bedside when she died. In a human society, he said, people with terminal illnesses should be allowed to choose death.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to stop her because I sympathised with her position,” he said.

“I would have liked, I think, to have been there. To have held her hand. But it wasn’t possible.

“I’m not saying it’s ruined my life because I wasn’t there, but I just hope that Miche went in a way that she wanted to go and didn’t suffer. That’s the key for me – that she didn’t suffer.

“Provided individuals are of sound mind and clear thinking…I see absolutely no reason why if they want to end their lives at a time of their choosing that they shouldn’t do that.

“If there is a no hope situation and they are of a sound mind and are willing to make this decision, then I think they should be allowed to with their loved ones around them.”