Cricketer and actors support right to die campaign

Dignity in Dying, which aims to legalise the choice of assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults, said the new patrons were among more than 30 additional high-profile supporters of the campaign in the past 12 months.

Sir Patrick, who was born in Mirfield, near Dewsbury, said: “We have no control over how we arrive in the world but at the end of a life we should have control over how we leave it.”

Broad’s wife Michelle was suffering from Motor Neurone Disease and ended her life alone when her suffering became unbearable.

He said: “My wife Miche died alone because she had an incurable disease. She was a very gregarious person and to die alone because the law wouldn’t allow loved ones to be with her at that time must have been awful for her.

“We are, by nature, creatures who make decisions and like company. Why then if we are struck down with an incurable disease are we forced to end our lives alone? This law must change and I support Dignity in Dying in their pursuit of this.”

McEwan’s support for a change in the law was reinforced by one of his friends, Dr Ann McPherson, becoming terminally ill with pancreatic cancer.

He said: “People who have a definite terminal illness and who are mentally competent and who want to be able to die and to do so on their own terms should be able to do so without criminalising the people around them.

“There is a lot of unnecessary suffering caused by people either having to leave their homeland to go and die or people having to criminalise near family and friends. The case seems to be quite overwhelming.

“The issue is not really of death but of how you live out that last chapter, those last sentences. To do it calmly with all the people around you that have mattered and you love in familiar surroundings should be a wonderful thing.”