WARNING: SENSITIVE CONTENT Wendy Duffy, 56, is the first person to speak publicly about travelling to Switzerland for assisted dying after the death of her only son, Marcus, four years ago
A British mum with no terminal illness is travelling to Switzerland to end her life at an assisted dying clinic following the death of her only son.
Wendy Duffy, 56, a former care worker from the West Midlands, has paid £10,000 to end her life at Pegasos, a Swiss assisted dying clinic, after losing her son Marcus, 23, four years ago. Despite years of therapy and antidepressants, she has been unable to come to terms with his death.
Speaking just days before her death, Wendy said: “I won’t change my mind. I know it’s hard for you, sweetheart. 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,” reports the Express.
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Wendy’s son’s tragic death
In an interview with Daily Mail journalist Jenny Johnson, Wendy recounted how she lost Marcus in harrowing circumstances four years ago. He had fallen asleep on the sofa while eating a sandwich, hungover after a heavy night out. Soon after she was confronted with every parent’s worst nightmare.
“He was purple,” she said. “I thought, ‘It’s his heart.'”
Wendy, who is medically trained, got Marcus to the floor and began CPR, screaming for help. Paramedics arrived and rushed him to hospital, where the worst news came: half a cherry tomato had been found lodged in his windpipe. It had taken specialist equipment to remove it.
Wendy sat with him for five days before his life support was switched off. His organs were donated for transplant. She said: “Afterwards, I got a letter from the man who got his heart. He said that thanks to Marcus he was able to play with his kids again,” she said. Another recipient was a four-year-old child. “That was a comfort, but it also ripped at me.”
She visited the funeral home daily to sit with her son, listening to his Spotify playlist.
“In the funeral home, I went in every day, and just sat with him, playing through his Spotify list. 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. I’m not the same person now as I was. I used to feel things. I don’t care about anything any more.”
Wendy said: “The day I discovered I was pregnant with Marcus was the happiest of my life” but now she says “I exist. I don’t live.”
Did Wendy try to get help?
After Marcus’s death, Wendy underwent extensive NHS and private counselling and was prescribed antidepressants. Nine months after losing him, she attempted to take her own life with an overdose. She spent two weeks on a ventilator, temporarily lost the use of her right arm, and 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 said.
She was briefly admitted to a psychiatric ward voluntarily following her hospital discharge but departed after one night, describing the conditions as prison-like.
“I did try to get better,” she said. “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.”
What is Pegasos and how does it work?
Pegasos is a Swiss assisted dying clinic that accepts psychiatric-only cases – where there is no physical illness – provided they meet strict criteria. The condition must be severe, long-lasting and treatment-resistant. Many Swiss clinics, including the better-known Dignitas, refuse such cases entirely.
Wendy first became aware of Pegasos in 2024 when it featured in an ITV investigation into the death of Alastair Hamilton, whose mother publicly called the clinic a “cowboy clinic.” She sent an email asking for information and submitted a formal application in early 2025.
The process involved more than a year of back-and-forth – interviews, forms and the submission of her full medical records and therapy history – conducted almost entirely remotely via email and WhatsApp. A panel of experts including psychiatrists assessed her case and approved it.
Under Swiss law, Wendy must administer the lethal medication herself. Wendy was not willing to take her own life in a way that would leave others traumatised. “I could step off a motorway bridge or a tower block but that would leave anyone finding me dealing with that for the rest of their lives,” she said. “I don’t want to put anyone through that.”
Her care sector background, she added, has given her an ease with death that others might not have. “Oh, I’ve seen death a million times. I’ve sat with so many people as they’ve gone. I’ve seen nice deaths, horrible deaths. I want a nice, gentle one.”
What does the clinic say?
Pegasos founder Ruedi Habegger confirmed Wendy had passed her final psychiatric assessment, carried out earlier this week.
“Wendy is very decided. I saw her at her hotel today, I had a long talk with her and with the psychiatrist that is going to see her a second time before the VAD [voluntary assisted death]. He is very confident that we are doing the right thing letting her go, that we should not stand in her way. She is absolutely not in a depressive state. I’m very experienced in this field. There are no worries with Wendy, none at all,” he said.
He confirmed four of her siblings had been informed and given their blessing. “Her family knew this was coming at one point or another. She is happy that she has their blessing. She feels content now, like a weight has been lifted,” Habegger said.
What has Wendy planned for her death?
Wendy has arranged every detail. She has written letters to loved ones, chosen her outfit and selected her music. She will wear a t-shirt belonging to Marcus – “it still smells of him” – and has asked for the clinic’s large windows to be left open so her spirit can be free. Her belongings, including her suitcase, will be donated to an animal charity.
She cannot donate her organs and will be cremated in Switzerland. Her ashes will be returned to her family in the UK and scattered alongside Marcus’s at a park bench dedicated to him.
Wendy’s siblings – four sisters and two brothers – reportedly know she applied to Pegasos but were not told the exact timing of her procedure, to protect them legally. Under UK law, anyone who assisted her – even driving her to the airport – could face investigation or prosecution.
Pegasos contacted her family directly. Wendy plans to call them from Switzerland to say goodbye.”They will get it. They know. Honestly, 100 per cent, they know that I’m not happy, that I don’t want to be here,” she said.
Why is she speaking out?
Wendy said she chose to go public to contribute to the assisted dying debate, the latest stage of which is due to take place in the House of Lords imminently. She said: “I’m not breaking the law. I don’t feel I’m doing anything wrong. Yet for them, it’s a mess.” She is aware her story will act as “a grenade lobbed into the assisted dying debate” – but is resolute.
“My life; my choice,” she repeated. “I wish this was available in the UK, then I wouldn’t have to go to Switzerland at all.”
Her voluntary assisted death procedure is due to take place on Friday.
The Samaritans is available 24/7 if you need to talk. You can contact them for free by calling 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or head to the website to find your nearest branch. You matter.
