EXCLUSIVE: Dad’s suicide heartbreak in Swiss clinic

Former advertising boss Jeffrey Spector flew to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland last week.

On Friday, the 54-year-old swallowed a lethal dose of poison at the euthanasia centre to end his life.

Mr Spector, from St Annes, lived with the tumour, which was gradually beginning to affect his nervous system, for six years.

And while waiting at a hotel in Switzerland the father-of-three told of the reasons behind his heartbreaking decision, why he feels the UK law on assisted suicide must change and why he wanted control over the final stages of his life.

Speaking exclusively to The Gazette before booking into the Dignitas clinic on Thursday, he said: “You don’t just wake up and think, ‘I’ll do it’.

“It has to be a collection of consistent thoughts, without peer pressure.

“It has to be a settled decision of sound mind. If the UK law was changed I would go down the surgery route to take the tumour out – get rid of it.

“Conventional wisdom says I won’t improve.

“If I am paralysed and can’t speak, send me to the spirit world.

“If I am paralysed and can speak and my mind is ok, ask me the question.

“But I don’t want to take the chance of very high-risk surgery and find myself paralysed.

“You are left with the choice someone else must take over. But I am a proud person. A dignified person. It is me doing it.

“I am an independent, self-motivated person.”

On Friday the father-of-three travelled to the Dignitas Clinic to end his life.

Since it was founded in 1998, it has helped hundreds of people from across Europe to commit suicide.

He added: “I want my family to have a good life. I want them to move forward.

“A man wants the best for his family, not for himself. I want my kids to enjoy their lives. If they cared for me and I got better, fine. But I won’t. I know it sounds stupid, but it is the knowing there is an end to it.”