My dad died from MND. A horrible disease, it stuck without warning and ravaged his muscles all too quickly.

20 months from diagnosis to death.

At 10 pm on a Tuesday evening three years later, the news came that a bill which would have allowed him to end his life six months earlier was defeated.

My father died in September 2022, so that would have been March, hypothetically. 

In May, he was in hospital for five weeks because of a fractured pelvis.

Well, to be honest, the long stay was not because of the pelvis, but rather because there were not enough trained carers in Aberdeenshire to look after him properly at home.

The author, his brother, and his father in January 2022. (Image: NQ)

I remember when he finally did come home, after more than a month away.

It was the summer after my second year at university. He was so much weaker than when he had left, and he never really recovered.

My family were robbed of those weeks with my dad due to a weakened social care system hollowed out by cuts and recruitment........

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