Terminally Ill Man Announces Date With Death

A terminally ill businessman has announced his death on his LinkedIn profile just days before he heads to a Swiss euthanasia clinic to end his life.

Simon Binner, 57, said he will die in the Eternal Spirit clinic in Basel on Monday and his funeral will be next month.

The Cambridge University graduate, from Purley, Surrey, wrote on the business networking service: "I was diagnosed with aggressive Motor Neurone Disease (MND) on 7 Jan 2015.

"As I was driven home I had already decided what I would gladly have to do when my time was upon me.

"I died in Switzerland with Eternal Spirit on Mon 19 Oct 2015 and my funeral was on Fri 13 Nov 2015.

"My MND accelerated very rapidly. The sawbones initially thought I would last until 2017/2018, but they were mistaken - no worries, it's an inexact science!"

He added: "I don't recommend MND! Better to have one massive fatal stroke or be killed instantly by a drunk driver! There is nothing that I can say that's positive about MND."

In a previous update on his LinkedIn page, he announced he was no longer operations director of Caremark, a health and social care company covering London and Sutton.

"I handed over my Operations Director role to Hannah Drury and became a Non-Executive Director. I died on Mon 19 Oct 2015," he wrote.

It is the second tragedy to hit the family after Mr Binner's 18-year-old stepdaughter Chloe Drury died from Ewing's Sarcoma , a rare form of bone cancer, in 2013.

Despite pleas from her parents, doctors and politicians, she was refused access to treatment being trialled by US pharmaceutical company BioMarin because she was too young to take part.

British Humanist Association (BHA) chief executive Andrew Copson said Mr Binner's story highlighted the need to change the law on assisted dying.

"The tragedy at the heart of Simon's story is that if the law allowed people with incurable and terminal conditions to seek a doctor-assisted death in this country, he and others like him would have more time to spend with their loved ones before their conditions became intolerable for them," he said.

"The current law heaps unnecessary suffering and trauma on to families like the Binners. Our thoughts of course continue to be with them at this difficult time.

"We continue to support a change in the law for those who are terminally and incurably suffering to end their lives, provided they have made a rational, committed, and uncoerced decision to do so, just as Simon has made for himself."

Motor neurone disease is a rare condition that progressively damages the nervous system, leading to muscle weakness and often visible wasting.

There are about 5,000 people living with the condition in the UK.