Assisted dying debate LIVE: Terminally ill woman says she faces starving herself if MPs don’t vote for law

Sat alone on Parliament Square, nervously waiting for the vote, is widower James Marment.

He is clutching a handwritten cardboard sign, which says: ‘My wife died in pain and anxiety in July. She should have had the right to decide how she died.”

His voice cracks with emotion as he tells The Mirror the way his wife Suzie, which he described as her ‘worst nightmare’ – she had been ‘locked in’ her body unable to move, speak or even blink.

He explained how Susie, a radiographer for the NHS for 40 years, from Battersea died of a very rare neurological disease called PML, a virus in the brain which causes ‘every faculty’ to fail.

“Her worst nightmare was to be locked in, being unable to hear and see what was happening and not being able to express herself and that’s what happened to her,” he said.

“She was given tremendous support and care at the Royal Trinity Hospice on Clapham Common but there is nothing they can do with a patient who is losing control over every faculty.

“She was such a caring person, who fundraised for McMillan, and she did not want her family to see her suffer in a way that caused them pain and anxiety. She was always thinking of other people. She was unable to move, to speak or even blink her eyes. We did not wish her to die like that.

“It was very distressing indeed, which is why I am here today. To try and help other people not to have to go through that.

“We knew she wanted to go months before but there was no way she could.

“I was beside her bed with her daughter when she finally died and it was a blessed relief for her and for us.

“She was a magnificent woman, one of life’s lovely people. She should not have had to suffer in that way.”