‘My mum went to Switzerland to end her life without telling us’

Maureen Slough, 58, told her family she was off on holiday with a friend. They found out what had happened by text message

A mum told her family she was going away on holiday with a friend, but instead travelled by herself to Switzerland to end her life. Maureen Slough, 58, hid her suffering from her children and only opened up to a friend she had connected with on TikTok during her final hours.

Although she was asked to keep the content of the messages a secret, this friend contacted Megan Royal, one of Ms Slough’s daughters, online, but efforts to reach the woman came too late.

During her last hours, the mum from County Cavan, Ireland, sent a string of messages online, including a text to Megan.

In a message to her online friend, Ms Slough wrote: “I’m not myself.

“I feel like I’ve been living in hell for the last year and it’s not good. I wake up crying, shaking, everything, because I’m in fear all the time, and that’s not the way I want to live.

“God wouldn’t want me dying alone,’ she added. “But I don’t think God wants people to be suffering until the end like f**king dogs.

“I wouldn’t even allow my dog to suffer, the way I’ve been allowed to.”

These haunting messages were amongst Ms Slough’s final words before her death at the facility in Basel, reports the Irish Mirror.

She had told her family she was travelling to Lithuania with a friend, but instead went to Switzerland, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1942.

Megan, a mother-of-two, said: “He (the online confidant) just replied like, ‘Your mum’s in Switzerland.’ He’s like, ‘You have a right to know. I was sworn to secrecy. She’s there and she wants assisted suicide.’

“I was so scared in that moment.” For the biggest stories in Wales first, sign up to our daily newsletter here

Unable to contact her mother in Switzerland, Megan instantly called her father.

The following day, at approximately 1pm, she received a WhatsApp message notifying her of her mother’s death.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Megan said: “In that very moment, because I was alone, I just sat there with the baby and cried… I just felt like my world ended.”

The text message allegedly originated from the clinic in Basel.

Megan learnt her mother, whom she characterised as “a fiery, smart and dedicated woman”, had discreetly submitted an application and paid roughly £13,000 to terminate her life in July.

Megan added: “No one’s saying she wasn’t feeling pain. Not pain good enough to go and end her life. She had a lot more life to live and give… She was just in a dark time. She wasn’t terminally ill or, in my opinion, ill enough to go and do this and leave our family behind like that.”

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