British riding star Caroline March's final message before she died, aged 31, in assisted suicide

25 March 2024, 21:47 | Updated: 25 March 2024, 22:19

By Kieran Kelly

@kellyjourno

The family of British riding star Caroline March have shared a final letter from the star revealing she chose to end her life aged 31 using assisted suicide following a horror spinal cord injury.

Ms March, whose death was announced on Saturday, started her letter by saying: "Where to even start writing this.

"Ideally I'd like to say nothing at all, because at the end of the day the people who I care about know but of course everyone will have an opinion which they'll feel a need to say.

She continued: "I've never understood society's obsession with longevity and the need to live for as long as possible. Alan Watts, a well-known philosopher famously said, 'I'd rather have a short life that is full of what I love doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way'.

"Assisted suicide is always something that I believed in and have always said that if anything happened to me and I was forced into the predicament that I couldn't have the quality of life that I wanted, that would be the route I'd take.

"Not going to lie, never imagined it would come to fruition but here we are."

Ms March carried on: "I could keep going but it's a decision I've made which is the best route for me.'No one can truly understand what I have to go through.

"My utmost respect for anyone who hasn't only made a life after injury, but those that have flourished."

She went on: "All I ever wanted was a family and I'd have given up everything in an instant for one. Two/three little sprogs running round the family farm having inherited my feral ways.

"I really wanted to be a young mum and I'd have been a f****** good one."

Warning: The post below contains strong and graphic language

"There is a lot of new treatments for SCI and the developments are exciting. For anyone else's sake, I hope it continues so my projected future isn't the same for everyone.

"A broken back can soon be treated the same as a broken arm.

"It's not an existence I want. The bowel and bladder regime, sexual function, the entire impossibility to do anything and everything that I love.

"I have felt so much love from so many people the last few years. I just wish love could fix it or even make it bearable but it can't."

Those feeling distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK