with Brian Quigley
Cilla Black and Gill Pharaoh. You will definitely have heard of the passing of the former recently, but probably not the latter. Yet the deaths of these two women are somewhat related and ask questions of all of us as to our treatment of the elderly in our society. Cilla Black, legendary singer and television presenter, passed away at the start of the month after a fall on the balcony of her holiday apartment in Estepona. There seemed to be some confusion about the exact cause of death. One report said she had slipped, banged her head, passed out and subsequently died of a stroke. Another said she had collapsed due to heatstroke. She had more or less retired from public appearances in the last year. Friends who were interviewed after her passing spoke of her concerns for her failing health (she suffered from arthritis, hearing issues and approaching blindness) and of her speaking of death as a relief. The singer, who’s hit ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ was the biggest-selling single of the 1960’s by a female artist, seemingly hated the thoughts of having to grow old in declining health.
Gill Pharaoh’s health wasn’t failing. At 75 she was three years older than Cilla Black and in perfect health, both mental and physical. Yet the retired palliative care nurse, a mother of two loving daughters, chose to travel to a Swiss suicide clinic in Basel to end her life so that she could avoid becoming a burden to her family or the NHS in the future. Shocking? The story polarised opinion on social media and even if you could see where she was in her thinking intellectually, it was hard to understand how she could occupy that space emotionally. Gill Pharoah isn’t alone. Between 2008 and 2012, a fifth of all the ‘customers’ at Swiss suicide clinics were, like Gill Pharoah, from the UK. Some people just fear approaching old age or declining health and decide to ‘jump the gun’ and take matters into their own hands.
It all adds up to a disturbing picture of how we view old age. I was lucky enough to have three grandparents well into adulthood (and even one great-grandparent until just before I reached my teenage years) and they all enjoyed life to the full until the end, despite declining health and serious illness. The key things that helped them enjoy their lives right to the end were the excellent quality of care they received through our health system, and having their families and friends closely involved in their lives. This is how things should be in society; we don’t want the spectra of euthanasia rearing its ugly head again.
Nobody should ever feel that they are going to end up a burden on others. They will obviously realise that they are going to need help as they get older, but they should realise this help is both deserved and given willingly. There is a Japanese island called Okinawa, where there are the highest proportion of centenarians in the world. A combination of diet and climate helps achieve this, but there exists among the population a respect for and celebration of being old. They have a saying ‘’at 70 you are a child, at 80 a young man or woman, and if at 90 someone from Heaven invites you over, tell them to come back at 100’’. It sort of sums up their attitude. Perhaps the rest of the world should take note.
