Die Smiling: A Memoir. The Sorrows and Joys of a Journey to Dignitas

Die Smiling is a rare and intimate account of one man’s journey to Dignitas in Zurich and his ultimate triumph over suffering and disease.

Told with wit and candour, Julie Casson traces her husband Nigel’s extraordinary journey from diagnosis of motor neurone disease to his death.

Successful businessman and father of three, Nigel battles the degenerative disease with boundless courage and gritty good humour, until, faced with the unimaginable torture of a slow, living death – his spirit crushed, his body a tomb – he takes control. He decides to go to Dignitas to end his life, while he is still able to die smiling.

The family prepares for this enormous logistical and emotional challenge: the gruelling Dignitas process and the eight-hundred-mile road trip to Switzerland. They complete it with pragmatism and humour. Denying the disease its victory and choosing his own cure, Nigel dies happily, in the arms of his wife and children.

This is a thought-provoking and deeply moving book, where love, family, dignity and choice conquer adversity. It sits in the heart of the debate on assisted dying and raises questions about the right to put an end to suffering and the right to choose how life should end.