"What a life I’ve had": Author announces own death after years of battling dementia
Wendy Mitchell has died aged 68 after documenting her brave battle with dementia.
The author from Walkington, East Yorkshire, became the best-selling writer after she was diagnosed with early onset vascular dementia and Alzheimer's in July 2014.
She shared her philosophical outlook on living with the condition in her acclaimed 2018 memoir Somebody I Used To Know and in her 2022 book What I Wish I Knew About Dementia.
In an open letter shared online, the author announced her death and revealed that she had refused to eat or drink towards the end of her battle.
"If you’re reading this, it means this has probably been posted by my daughters as I’ve sadly died," she began.
"Sorry to break the news to you this way, but if I hadn’t, my inbox would eventually have been full of emails asking if I’m OK, which would have been hard for my daughters to answer…
"In the end I died simply by deciding not to eat or drink any more," she wrote.
She added that the last cup of tea she had, her "final hug in a mug" was "the hardest thing to let go of".
"Dementia is a cruel disease that plays tricks on your very existence. I’ve always been a glass half full person, trying to turn the negatives of life around and creating positives, because that’s how I cope."
Mitchell said that the language used by doctors can "make or break" how someone copes with dementia, and instead of saying there's "nothing they can do" it is better to tell them they will have to "adapt to a new way of living".
"Well I suppose dementia was the ultimate challenge. Yes, dementia is a bummer, but oh what a life I’ve had playing games with this adversary of mine to try and stay one step ahead," she wrote in her final blog post.
She also said that she had always been resilient, which has helped her cope with whatever life throws in her way.
Mitchell has been an advocate for assisted dying in the UK, and said that "the only legal choice we shouldn’t have in life is when to be born; for everything else, we, as humans, should have a choice; a choice of how we live and a choice of how we die."
She added that the way she died was an active choice as she doesn't want "to be an inpatient in a hospital, or a resident in a Care Home," as "it’s just not the place I want to end my years."
"My girls have always been the two most important people in my life. I didn’t take this decision lightly, without countless conversations. They were the hardest conversations I’ve ever had to put them through.
"This was all MY CHOICE, my decision. So please respect my daughters' privacy, as they didn’t choose the life I chose, of standing up to and speaking out against dementia."
She then thanked everyone for their support and left with a touching final message.
"So, enjoy this knowing that dementia didn’t play the winning card – I did."
Images: Daily Mail