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Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
She'd endured every mother's worst nightmare, but was it a poisonous feud with the 'village witches' over her craft shop that drove a healthy Brit, 65, to end her life in a Swiss suicide clinic?
She smiled sweetly in pastel cardigans, chatting gently about yarn weights and showing off her stitched creations. But when crochet queen Amanda Machin revealed she had checked herself into a Swiss suicide clinic, what unravelled was more knotted than the trickiest tangle of thread. The 65-year-old - known to her 50,000 online followers as crafting influencer Amanda Bloom - recorded an emotional farewell before signing out at the controversial Pegasos clinic, where assisted death is legal even without terminal illness. 'By the time you see this, I'll be with my Jenny,' she said quietly. 'I know this is going to be a bit of a shock.' Amanda's only child, Jenny Machin, died in 2017 from a brain tumour aged just 19. She never recovered from the loss, documenting her grief in heartfelt social media posts over the years. Yet her final months became engulfed in acrimony, bitterness and claims of bullying in the sleepy North Yorkshire village of Bentham, where she had opened a crafting enterprise earlier this year. Within weeks, Amanda Bloom Craft Room had closed down. Beneath a sign announcing the 'temporary closure', someone plastered a sticker that simply read: 'Good!' In a final Facebook post, Amanda accused a 'little group of crafters in Bentham' of making her life 'miserable for months with your bitchy comments, cruel Facebook memes and untrue gossip.' She wrote: 'Please don't think it's ok to pass me in the street with a cheery smile and hello…as if nothing has happened. 'It's not ok. You've cost me my new business, my financial security and my home. 'Please don't kid yourself that what you've done is a bit of harmless fun. It isn't. There are consequences.' In a suicide note, later posted online, she said: 'I just long for Jenny with all my heart….the laughter, the feeling of loving her unconditionally and being so wholeheartedly loved in return. She was the one wonderful thing in my life and without her it's just too hard. 'When I originally applied to Pegasos, I had hoped to go in November…to have one last summer and autumn, and to carry on running my lovely shop for a bit longer, but after the bullying escalated and made my shop feel unsafe to me, I decided to go as soon as possible. 'So I'm done. I give up. I just want to be with my darling girl who was always kind, always compassionate. I don't know what lies ahead. Maybe we'll be together, maybe there's only oblivion.' Amanda continued: 'I've sent letters to my nearest and dearest which hopefully you'll have received before seeing this. Nobody needs to do anything. All the official stuff has been taken care of. 'I know this isn't very rock and roll but I wanted to be sure that I would leave no mess or trauma for anyone to have to deal with. I've been able to plan and be organised. And for myself, I was assured of a certain, dignified, clean, pain free death.' Amanda confirmed in her goodbye that she had applied for assisted suicide after reading an article about another grieving woman who had chosen the same path. Friends say she reportedly paid £10,000 to die on her own terms. The application had been made months earlier, with an original date set for November. But, she wrote, harassment from locals forced her to bring the date forward. In a suicide note, later posted online, she said: 'When I originally applied to Pegasos, I had hoped to go in November…to have one last summer and autumn, and to carry on running my lovely shop for a bit longer. 'But after the bullying escalated and made my shop feel unsafe to me, I decided to go as soon as possible. 'So I'm done. I give up. I just want to be with my darling girl who was always kind, always compassionate.' Even in death, Amanda's story has bitterly divided her former community in the picturesque Yorkshire Dales. Supporters accused a small group of women of carrying out a 'hate campaign' against the grieving mother, who lived in a £400-a-month charity-run almshouse. One friend told Mail Online that Amanda had been the victim of 'nasty and unceasing bullying from a community of crafters', describing it 'like something from the film 'Wicked Little Letters', only in this story it has ended with somebody's death'. But women accused online as supposedly bullying Amanda insisted the claims could not have been further from the truth. Andrea Taylor, 61, told MailOnline: 'Don't portray Amanda as being this nice, lovely woman who's been upset by the public. 'Bentham has got really good people here. People did try to help her when she first came back and she turned nasty. 'She could be very plausible online - if you only saw the last posts before she died, you'd think 'poor woman.' But believe me, she had a very nasty side. Ms Taylor, a former police employee, added: 'She has followers who are making out me and others are bullies, when we're not. 'We're standing up for good people. And Amanda wasn't. She really wasn't. 'She's taken her own life and I don't wish to sound insensitive, but I'm not having friends that are genuine and caring being upset.' Amanda's supporters, many of whom purchased her popular DIY crafting kit subscriptions, claim she was hounded out of Bentham by a clique of 'pathetic harridans'. One wrote online: 'Your puerile and vile behaviour cost a lovely lady her business, her home and her peace of mind to such an extent that she felt she had no reason to stay alive any longer.' However, MailOnline was told by multiple sources in the market town that Amanda had in turn become hostile to friends who had tried to reach out and support her. Amanda accused a 'little group of crafters in Bentham' of making her life 'miserable for months with your bitchy comments, cruel Facebook memes and untrue gossip' Following the closure of her shop, the windows of Amanda's shop were covered with sheets of A4 paper bemoaning 'bullying' and affirmations such as: 'Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make your shine any brighter' One, a woman aged 79, was injured at her high street shop in April after Amanda was said to have slammed a door on her hand. North Yorkshire Police was reportedly investigating. Shortly after, the cosy yellow-fronted shop shut permanently. Soon its windows were covered by Amanda with sheets of A4 paper bemoaning 'bullying' and affirmations such as: 'Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make your shine any brighter'. Amanda wrote on Instagram in May: 'I was hoping that the bullies would have moved on by now but they haven't, so I'm just keeping to myself for these last few days until I can leave Bentham. 'I'm so sorry to let you down but it's just not worth the aggro.' Retired textiles crafter Lynne Massey, 69, claimed Amanda turned against her after the pair both moved to Bentham in 2020. She said: 'I did my best but she disliked me from the beginning. I didn't do anything against her. 'She told me never to speak to her, so I didn't, and then she told everybody I was ignoring her and not speaking. 'It was like this for four years. 'She upset me, but I put that out of the way. But there were people in my community that she was having shouts and screams at. Once she came out of the shops and called me a tatty-headed, scruffy old bitch. 'She's upset so many people. I stopped going out for quite a while, just kept to myself. 'I thought 'I don't need this hassle'. I'm too old for it.' Amanda's mental health struggles were not new, according to those that knew her. In 2010, she hit headlines when she accused an Anglican vicar of fleecing her out of £160,000 during a time of severe depression after her marriage broke down and her sister died. She claimed he told her to stop taking antidepressants and instead offered 'deliverance ministry' to expel demons, telling her to make a list of everyone she had ever had sex with, and burn it. 'I was so low and believed he was the only one who could cure me, so I did whatever he said,' she alleged at the time. 'He has fleeced me out of thousands and robbed my daughter and I of our financial security.' Amanda's social media profiles are awash with claim and counterclaim, with those accused of bullying being blamed for her decision to end her life. One former neighbour suggested that some residents were angry that she had opened a crafting business, when one was already operational in the town. They said: 'There was already a craft shop and some people thought she was taking business away. But she wasn't selling things. She was running classes, trying to find happiness after her daughter died. 'It sounds pathetic but there are some horrible old bitches in the village.' Another suggested there was consternation that Amanda had been housed in accommodation designated for the destitute, despite appearing to be able to pay rent and rates for her business premises. NHS worker Rachel Martin, from Bentham, spoke in defence of both Amanda and those accused of bullying. In a lengthy Facebook post, she said: 'Amanda was often distressed and hysterical, accusing people of bullying her, stalking her and harassing her. These things never actually happened. 'This whole situation centres around a lovely lady who suffered the tragedy of losing her daughter and struggled with her mental health. 'Her actions were driven by that, but caused a lot of stress and upset to the people who had bent them over a period of many months. 'Those people who did their very best to support a troubled friend are now being vilified online and accused of driving her to suicide.' In Switzerland, where Pegasos operates, there is no requirement for terminal illness to be a factor in approving an assisted dying application - unlike proposed legislation in the UK. Amanda informed friends of her decision via letters sent from the airport. The clinic later confirmed her death to an unknown 'designated contact'. This week, Amanda's one bed cottage had been emptied and a new arrival was due to move in. Neighbour Fred Carter, 88, said he was stunned to learn of her assisted suicide. He said: 'To me, she seemed fine. I used to take in her parcels - loads of them, sewing machines and things like that. I never saw anything wrong with her 'She never said a word to anyone about going or what her plans were. I just can't work it out. But you never know what's going on in someone's mind. 'She was a good neighbour, always spoke nicely. I didn't have a bad word to say about her.' Amanda's best friend, crafter Julie Park, posted online how the pair said a final goodbye before she left North Yorkshire in her campervan for the last time. She said: 'We Facetimed every couple of hours right up until the last time when she was in the clinic. 'And even then, I told her it wasn't too late. I could get a flight and go and get her. 'She could come back here, we could make a she was happy and content and utterly unwavering in her decision. 'The longing for Jenny was overpowering and even if she was heading for oblivion, she said she was walking through a door that Jenny had gone through and that nothing else mattered.' Eight weeks on from Amanda's death, her ashes are still to be returned from Switzerland - a wait that has done little to quell whispers in Bentham that she may actually still be alive. In one of the village's three pubs, one local said: 'It's sad and people want to draw a line under it. 'But there are so many people who don't even believe that she's done it, and that she might just turn back up. 'Nobody knows for sure, do they, that she's gone?' Friends from the crafting community have since raised over £7,000 for a bursary for budding artists. The fund will enable an artist to stand at Yarndale, one of the biggest crafting shows in the UK, held annually at nearby Skipton.
Telegraph
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Dame Joanna Lumley: I ‘wouldn't mind' assisted dying
Dame Joanna Lumley has said she 'wouldn't mind' an assisted death if she reached a 'miserable' state where she was unable to talk or eat without help. The 79-year-old actress says she supports the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill approved in the House of Commons last month, which would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death. Asked about the Bill in an interview with Saga magazine, Dame Joanna said: 'People are terribly anxious about it and think one may be coerced (into voluntary euthanasia). 'But I'm saying this now when nobody's coercing me, don't let me turn into somebody who doesn't recognise the people I love most, where I'm having a miserable time. 'When I get to the stage where I can't speak and have to be fed, that won't be me any more and that's when I wouldn't mind saying farewell.' Under the Terminally Ill Adults Bill, which was backed by 314 votes to 291 in the Commons, those wishing to go through assisted dying would require approval by two doctors and a panel including a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. It will next come before the House of Lords for further debate and votes at a date to be confirmed. Dame Esther Rantzen, who is terminally ill with cancer and has been one of the biggest proponents of the bill, has urged the House of Lords to pass the legislation. The TV presenter and campaigner, who has stopped responding to her lung cancer treatment, said: 'Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose. 'Law is actually created by the elected chamber, which is the House of Commons, who have voted this through.' Lord Shinkwin, a disabled Conservative peer, has been critical of the bill, having been in intensive care earlier this year. He said if a doctor had asked him at the time about assisted dying – which they would be able to under the provisions of the bill – he 'would have felt under real pressure to do that'. The proposal was first put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in October last year and passed through the House of Commons on June 20. Sir Keir Starmer, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, and Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, were among the 224 Labour MPs who voted in favour of the bill, with 160 against. Kemi Badenoch, the Leader of the Opposition, was one of the 20 Conservative MPs out of 121 who voted against the bill.
BBC News
21-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Assisted dying: Esther Rantzen urges Lords not to block bill
Dame Esther Rantzen has appealed to the House of Lords not to block a bill giving terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to an assisted death, after it was backed by MPs on Terminally Ill Adults Bill was passed by 314 votes to 291 in the House of Commons - but will need to go through the Lords before becoming Dame Esther, who joined the Swiss assisted dying clinic Dignitas after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2023, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose."Critics of the bill, including some in the Lords, say it could see disabled and vulnerable people coerced into ending their lives. Some peers have indicated they will attempt to amend the legislation to introduce more Esther, a prominent supporter of the bill, said she did not "need to teach the House of Lords how to do their job"."People who are adamantly opposed to this bill - and they have the perfect right to oppose it - will try and stop it going through the Lords."But she said the duty of peers was to make sure "law is actually created by the elected chamber, which is the House of Commons, who have voted this through".Even though MPs have approved the bill, peers in the Lords could stop it from becoming law by voting against it or not approving it quickly Tanni Grey-Thompson, who will get a vote in the Lords, said that she had heard from "disabled people [who] are absolutely terrified" of the former Paralympian said she would put forward amendments to make it "as tight as possible" and prevent Grey-Thompson told BBC Breakfast that it was the "job in the Lords" to go "line by line" to ensure all amendments were fairly debated. "I do think there are a lot more safeguards that could be put in," she said. Under the proposals, mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with a life expectancy of less than six months would be eligible for an assisted would need to make two separate declarations, signed and witnessed, about their "clear, settled and informed" wish to die, and satisfy two independent doctors that they are eligible and have not been would be at least a seven-day gap between each application would then go before a multi-disciplinary panel comprising a psychiatrist, a social worker and a the panel approved the application, there would be a further 14-day "period of reflection" which could be cut to 48 hours if the patient is likely to die within a month. Pressed about concerns that vulnerable people could be coerced into an assisted death, Dame Esther replied: "We have got this right."She said the bill set out a "rigorous" process. An assisted death would only be available to those with six months to live who chose to ask for help with ending their lives, and had that request approved by doctors and a panel of added that that "disability will not qualify anyone for assisted dying, nor will mental disorder".Dame Esther said she was "deeply relieved" by Friday's vote - though she noted it was unlikely to become law in her lifetime."At least I know that for future generations, if life becomes intolerable, unbearable, and they are terminally ill with six months or less to live, they will be able to ask for a pain-free, swift death." The Commons vote in favour of the bill came after a debate that saw MPs tell their personal stories of seeing friends and relatives is likely, though not guaranteed, that the Lords will approve the bill later this that happens, ministers would have a maximum of four years to implement the measures, meaning assisted dying may not become available until MP Danny Kruger, a vocal opponent of the move, said he hoped the Lords would either reject the proposed legislation or "substantially strengthen it".But Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who proposed the bill, said she hoped the would be "no funny games" in the Lords, "because the process has been extremely thorough".Any changes made in the House of Lords would also have to be approved by MPs before the bill could become legislation was approved with a majority of 23 MPs - less than half the margin of 55 in favour when it was first debated in were given a free vote on the bill, meaning they did not have to follow a party policy. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer backed the legislation, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Health Secretary Wes Streeting voted against it.
The Independent
12-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Campaigners urge MPs to vote down assisted dying bill over anorexia ‘loophole'
People with anorexia could be allowed to die by assisted death under a proposed Bill, more than 250 campaigners have warned, urging MPs to vote down the legislation when it returns to the Commons. A letter to MPs, signed by 268 people who have suffered with eating disorders, warned: 'If this bill had been law during the years many of us were struggling, we would have used it to end our lives.' Campaigner Chelsea Roff, founder of eating disorder organisation Eat Breathe Thrive, warned that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill contains ' dangerous loopholes that have enabled suicidal women with anorexia to die by assisted death' in other countries around the world. Only those diagnosed with terminal conditions would be covered under the assisted dying legislation, proposed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. But anorexia - which is primarily a mental health condition - can lead to lethal physical symptoms, including malnutrition, which campaigners say makes it difficult to entirely exclude it from the Bill. There are also concerns over the recent use of the term 'terminal anorexia', a diagnosis that has been used by medical professionals to describe patients who they do not believe can recover. The term – which has been widely criticised - was introduced in a case series published in the Journal of Eating Disorders, which described the deaths of three individuals with anorexia. The authors argued that those diagnosed with this condition should be 'afforded access to medical aid in dying in locations where such assistance has been legalised — just like other patients with terminal conditions'. It comes after a recent study found that individuals with eating disorders have died by assisted death in three US states - California, Colorado and Oregon. The legislation in each of these states limit eligibility to individuals diagnosed with a terminal illness. But pro-assisted dying sources said the definition of terminal illness in the bill is most similar to the laws in Australia, where there have been no cases involving eating disorders. The letter urges MPs to vote against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill as it returns to the Commons, warning that, in its current format, it is not safe for those affected by eating disorders. 'Eating disorders are amongst the most deadly mental illnesses', the letter warns. 'Despite eating disorders being a treatable illness, too often people are being failed by the system. Many people with eating disorders wait months and even years for treatment; they have to fight for access to basic care and support.' Labour MP Richard Quigley, whose own child has been in and out of hospital with anorexia for the last four years, echoed these warnings. While he said he is not opposed to assisted dying in principle, he argued that mental health care in the UK is not yet good enough to ensure the legislation is applied safely. 'Anybody that's experienced services will know that CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), only scrapes the surface. 'You might get six sessions of therapy... but the system seems to be designed around pushing you out back into the world, rather than putting their arms around you until you're fully rebuilt. And sufferers end up relying on each other, which isn't the best form of treatment', he said. But despite his concerns, Mr Quigley also said he is glad the country is having a conversation about assisted dying. 'It is one of those very emotive issues. Everybody who wants it to take place has got a very harrowing story about somebody they've seen die under difficult circumstances. And everybody that doesn't want it has got an equally harrowing story of somebody that survives two three years after', he said. 'But from personal perspective, both eating disorders and mental health, it's very very difficult to make it fit. There's too much evidence from other countries that already allow assisted dying showing that people with mental health issues - and especially eating disorders - can elect to end their lives early.' Anorexia is a psychiatric disorder that can lead to severe physical deterioration and is known as the most lethal psychiatric disorder – with suicide being the second leading cause of death in anorexia. Individuals with anorexia are up to eighteen times more likely to die by suicide than their age-matched peers. 'With any other illness the patient wants to work with you. But with eating disorders, they actively work against you', Mr Quigley said. 'I'm just very much worried that we don't understand mental health well enough for it to be included in this bill, but I don't know how you'd exclude it. That's the problem', Mr Quigley said. A number of amendments were proposed as part of an attempt to ensure people with eating disorders were excluded from the Bill when it was at committee stage, but each of them were rejected. Labour MP Naz Shah, whose amendment was rejected last month, is tabling two amendments at the bill's third reading, one which will exclude people who have voluntarily stopped eating or drinking from the bill, and another which will exclude people are taking 'any action intended to bring about a state of terminal illness'. While sources close to Ms Leadbeater said she would be supporting the first amendment, both Ms Shah and eating disorder campaigners are clear this would not be enough to prevent those with eating disorders from being included in the legislation - as the decision to stop eating is not a 'voluntary' one for those with eating disorders, it is the result of a psychiatric condition. Ms Roff said she fears that, without appropriate amendments, a 'person with anorexia, in a moment of despair, might be given a lethal prescription rather than the treatment [they] desperately need.' 'That would be a terrible tragedy, mirroring what we have already seen happen in at least sixty known cases abroad, including three U.S. states where assisted death is only legal for terminally ill people. A third of these women never reached their thirtieth birthday', she said. A spokesperson for Ms Leadbeater said: 'It's an old story. This issue has been debated at great length in Committee and Kim is now supporting Naz Shah's amendment 14 that excludes from eligibility somebody who has voluntarily stopped eating or drinking. 'This, along with the existing safeguards in the Bill, would rule out people with anorexia falling under the cope of the Bill. 'To be eligible a person must have 'an inevitably progressive illness or disease which cannot be reversed by treatment'. Anorexia is not inevitably progressive and can be reversed.' But Ms Shah told The Independent: 'I have no idea what the amendment will actually be, and [Ms Leadbeater] is only accepting one, not the other, therefore I can't support the bill. The process is ultimately flawed'. She said it is 'categorically untrue' that the bill excludes people with mental illness.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Yahoo
Colorado man sentenced to 4 years in prison for assisting friend in suicide
DENVER () — A Weld County District Court Judge sentenced 73-year-old Mark Switzer to four years in the Colorado Department of Corrections on Friday for assisting his friend in suicide in 2017. The sentence comes after Switzer pleaded guilty in February to manslaughter – aiding in suicide in the May 2017 death of 49-year-old Nathan Combs. Dates set for Menendez brothers' resentencing hearing Investigators initially believed Combs death was the result of an accident involving a truck, after he was found dead on May 18, 2017, near a semi-truck west of Hereford, however investigators later determined he had been shot. The Weld County DA said the investigation also revealed Combs had increased his life insurance policy in the months leading up to his death and had arranged for Switzer, a then-friend, to carry out the killing. 'This was not a momentary lapse in judgement or a mistake,' Deputy District Attorney KatherineFitzgerald said, during Friday's sentencing hearing. 'This was a calculated plan and a deliberate action. Regardless of whether the victim asked him to assist in his death, this defendant still killed Nathan Combs and this type of behavior won't be tolerated in our community.' Free on Your TV • New FOX31+ App for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV Switzer was arrested in March 2023. He was originally charged with first-degree murder but had that charge dismissed as part of his plea agreement. —Find .If you are thinking of hurting or killing yourself:Call or text 988 or chat at .Please get help immediately. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
