Daily Mail<\/a>: “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.<\/p>\n“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.”<\/p>\n
The 56-year-old explained how her son had fallen asleep on the sofa after a heavy night out. He had just asked Wendy to make him a sandwich before she walked back into the living room to find half a cherry had been found lodged in his windpipe.<\/p>\n
Marcus was starved of oxygen for too long which led him to become brain dead. Wendy sat with him in hospital for five days before his life support was switched off.<\/p>\n
Following her son’s death, Wendy underwent extensive counselling and was prescribed antidepressants. However, just nine months later, she tried to take her own life with an overdose.<\/p>\n
![\"Marcus](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/marcus-duffy-6880637.jpg\" "\\"Marcus")
<\/p>\n
Wendy lost her son Marcus four years ago (Image: -)<\/p>\n
Wendy added: “I did try to get better. But you can take all the pills, you can go to all the counselling in the world \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
She has since decided to end her life at Pegasos. The assisted dying clinic accepts psychiatric-only cases \u2014 where there is no physical illness \u2014 provided they meet strict criteria.<\/p>\n
The condition must be severe, long-lasting and treatment-resistant. Many Swiss clinics, including the better-known Dignitas, refuse such cases entirely.<\/p>\n
![\"Pegasos\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pegasos-6880642.jpg\" "\\"Pegasos\\"")
<\/p>\n
Wendy will travel to Pegasos, in Switzerland, to end her own life (Image: Pegasos)<\/p>\n
Ruedi Habegger, founder of Pegasos, said: “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].<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Wendy said she chose to go public with her decision to contribute to the assisted dying debate. She explained: “My life; my choice.<\/p>\n
“I wish this was available in the UK, then I wouldn’t have to go to Switzerland at all.”<\/p>\n
If you are affected by issues discussed within this article, you may contact Samaritans on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wendy Duffy has paid to end her own life (Image: \/) A British mother has paid \u00a310,000 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[30371,4262,30862,30374,17,30863],"class_list":{"0":"post-55065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-assisted-dying","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mental-health-section","11":"tag-pegasos-clinic","12":"tag-switzerland","13":"tag-wendy-duff"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116460237853751112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Wendy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/wendy-duffy-6880618.jpg\" "\\"Wendy")
<\/p>\n