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Mum with incurable stage-four cancer urges government to pass Assisted Dying Bill
20 June 2025, 08:46 | Updated: 20 June 2025, 20:24
A 52-year-old single-mum with incurable stage-four cancer has urged the government to pass the controversial End of Life Bill, which will face a final vote by MPs in Parliament today.
One woman's campaign to die with dignity
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If passed, the bill would set in motion the process to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people in England and Wales. If it’s rejected, Sophie Blake fears she could suffer a “terrifying” death.
The mum was first diagnosed with cancer in 2019 and went into remission, until she was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in 2022. The cancer has since spread to her abdominal lymph node, pelvic bone, liver, lungs and skin.
The fun-loving former model is still living life to the fullest, finding time to travel whilst campaigning with the charity Dignity in Dying.
But she knows her diagnosis is terminal, and when the time comes, she says she wants to pass on her own terms – with dignity and in comfort.
“When you get a terminal diagnosis, obviously your life gets turned upside down and you evaluate everything and how you want to live your life. And for me, that also includes how I would want to also be able to die at the end,” she told LBC at her Brighton home ahead of Friday’s crucial vote.
“I’ve known people begging to die because of the amount of pain they’re in. I never understood why we allowed human beings to suffer at the end of life. It’s so cruel.”
Read more: Assisted dying: All you need to know ahead of the next parliamentary vote
Read more: Keir Starmer signals support for assisted dying as MPs get ready for crunch vote
Ms Blake has been given “real hope” by the private member’s bill introduced to the House of Commons by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater in October last year.
The Bill seeks to allow adults a way to legally request to end their lives prematurely – provided they’re mentally competent and have less than six months left to live. Proponents of the bill suggest cases would be approved by a panel of legal and medical experts.
Hundreds of MPs still oppose the legislation, calling it “irredeemably flawed” and fearing vulnerable people could be exploited. Senior figures such as former Prime Minister Gordon Brown have also publicly come out against the bill.
However, Ms Leadbeater has told LBC that the country “desperately needs” this law, because “despite excellent palliative care, people are still enduring traumatic deaths against their wishes".
In the UK, approximately 20 terminally ill people die in unrelieved pain every single day, according to the Office of Health Economics.
“Please think about them,” says Ms. Blake. “Please think about the 650 people who take their own lives every year with a terminal illness because they can't see another way out – and often in really horrific circumstances which again are leaving families behind absolutely traumatised.”
Ms Blake is currently undergoing treatment to extend her life as long as possible, but she worries her final moments would be worsened by the fact she’s allergic to medicines that could help ease her pain.
“I don't want to leave my daughter traumatised,” she said. “I don't want her to be left with her memories of me suffering at the end or in agony.”
Her daughter, Maya, 18, told LBC: “I’ve lost family members before. I’ve seen them at the end, but I don't want to remember her the way that I remember them.
"I think my main worry would be just Mum would be scared. It's just not fair.”
Ms Blake and her daughter have attended some of the recent debates in the House of Commons, to watch MPs scrutinise and attempt to strengthen the bill.
Recent approved amendments include banning advertising the service and ensuring medical professionals won't raise the topic with under-18s.
But Ms Blake says she’s “hurt” by some of the language used in the chamber during the session, with assisted dying described by one member as “murder".
“Remember that this bill is only for dying people, who have no control over the fact that they are going to die,” she argues. “If you vote against it, you’re going to prevent us from having access to dying in a pain-free way.”
She says she would be “devastated” if MPs voted down the bill, stating that the legalisation “would remove the fear and I could live the life I've got left knowing I can take control of how I die at the end. A peaceful death is all any of us want in life".
Assisted dying legislation is already progressing in Scotland and the Isle of Man. More than 300 million people worldwide can already legally access assisted dying to varying degrees.
Even if given a green light by MPs in Westminster, the bill would then have to undergo scrutiny in the House of Lords, and it could take years before measures are actually implemented in England and Wales. The rollout may not begin until 2029.
“I don’t know if it’ll happen here in my lifetime,” admits Ms Blake. But she says she’s given it “her best shot to help everybody who would like to have this bill. So I just have to wait and see what happens and keep everything crossed".
