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Wracked with pain, and after eight years on morphine, Marie Lopez has finally chosen death over a life blighted by illness and cruel spending cuts.

This once vibrant businesswoman has spent her every last penny paying for her own care after social services left her to suffer in agony.

Now she is using her last £10,000 to buy an end to her ordeal at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland, even though she is not dying.

For decades Marie, 54, has ­battled Crohn’s disease , a crippling and incurable condition that ­attacks the digestive system. Then, almost 10 years ago, the 38 hours a week of social care that made her life bearable was cut back entirely, forcing Marie to fund it herself.

Now she has decided she can ­endure no more. And she blames ­Government cuts for her decision to die at the Lifecircle Clinic in Basel.

The former City analyst says: “I have not taken this decision lightly. I am ready to die to put an end to my misery. Crohn’s might not be terminal but, believe me, it kills at a slow pace.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

“This is why I want to die. If people realised for a second the hell of living with a condition like this, they would understand why I can’t go on.

“I have been on morphine for over eight years as the pain is now ­constant and tremendous.

“You wouldn’t keep an animal alive in the state I am in. I cannot get the care I need at home to make my life more comfortable either.

“Whatever I eat, I can’t absorb properly. I spend my life in a constant state of severe lethargy, exhausted and unable to carry out even basic chores like cooking, cleaning and shopping.

(Image: Getty)

“I’d love to be able to do those things but it takes all my energy even to get out of bed and get washed. I live in complete social isolation. I’m lonely.

“If the authorities listened to what I’m going through perhaps they would have given me the help I needed in the first place and maybe this would not be happening. Either way, I am going.”

Ken Loach, the film maker campaigning against benefit cuts, says she is a double victim – of “a debilitating illness and a brutal ­bureaucracy”.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Housebound Marie claims she has been denied vital care, despite ­repeated pleas from experts to Buckinghamshire Social Services. She hopes that after she dies, they will be held to account for their actions.

Her worldly belongings amount to just a ­bundle of clothes and a handful of photos and keepsakes.

Lifecircle Clinic doctors ­agreed to register her after she made a heartbreaking plea, stating that her disease was “incurable and progressive” and her life was no longer worth living. It is a stringent process and only the most serious cases are accepted.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

Marie does not recognise ­herself as the strong, passionate woman she once was. She adds: “I cannot go on like this. I had everything going for

me. People said I was clever, talented, caring and, despite my condition, I pushed myself in my job and was successful. That seems a world away.”

Marie’s tale bears a harrowing likeness to Ken Loach’s award-winning film I, Daniel Blake, in which an injured carpenter has to rely on welfare. He and a single mum in a similar plight paint a picture of life on benefits, which ends in Daniel’s untimely death.

When he heard of Marie’s plight, director Loach told the Sunday Mirror: “So many people have been treated with great cruelty by the DWP (Department for Work and Pensions), it’s not surprising to hear of one more.

“Everyone’s heart should go out to anyone contending with both a debilitating illness and a brutal bureaucracy”.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

There are also chilling echoes of Stephanie Bottrill, 53, of ­Solihull, West Mids, who left a suicide note blaming the ­Tories’ Bedroom Tax for financially crippling her. And Brit newlyweds Robert Wells, 36, and Imogen Goldie, 28, who died in a ­suicide pact in Cambodia on New Year’s Eve, cited lack of NHS mental health services as the reason for their deaths.

Marie, whose own specialist warned she could become “acutely suicidal” without proper care, adds: “The cuts are killing people and I do not want anyone else to suffer the way I have.”

Her condition was diagnosed in her teens and she has spent more than 30 years managing it.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

But in 2008 she hit crisis point when all social services help was halted. She was later offered one hour’s care a day – when her GP said she needed 35 hours a week. Marie was left to pay for her own care at £17 an hour. In 2010 she began using savings to fund her care over four years. When the money ran dry she started selling belongings.

But when the disease started to worsen, she could no longer bear the increased physical pain and last year contacted the Swiss clinic.

Marie gained a business degree in Spain, where she was born, and an MBA in the UK, before working in the City. Understandably, she resents the way the system has treated her.

She says: “Independent living in Britain is one of the biggest cons going. I paid 40 per cent tax in the UK for more than 20 years, but when I fell ill there was no real help.

(Image: Facebook)

“I had a carer for 38 hours a week but when cuts came, this was scaled back to nothing. Councils take advantage of the most vulnerable as they know they can’t defend themselves. The social cleansing has arrived and it is only the beginning. Without help, my life went downhill rapidly. And the humiliation and indignity of my condition means I am a prisoner in my own home.”

Marie has undergone countless ops and still needs twice-yearly ­procedures. She has a “Do Not Resuscitate” order on her medical files.

Close to tears, Marie adds: “People hear Crohn’s and they think it is tummy pain and toilet problems. In reality you need help for any tasks and chores.

“It affects the entire digestive system. You do not eat much if you know it’s going to hurt in an hour. You need a special toilet to avoid abscesses, which costs £5,000, and the authorities pay nothing.

"It’s wrecked my life. This is a very, very cruel illness.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

"This is not something I am doing on a whim or as a protest. Social services are not responsible for my illness or my full decision to die, but their actions, policies and the stress caused encouraged me to do it early.”

Savage Tory cuts since 2010 have seen a huge drop in funding. The Local Government Association warned some councils find it so hard to provide the correct ­support they risk a High Court challenge for breaking the law. The Government is ­lifting NHS funding by £10billion by 2020.

But this applies to NHS England, not total spending. Health Foundation analysis shows in real terms funding will be cut by a fifth by 2020-21.

But Marie won’t be around by then. Her suicide is expected within the next three months.

She will drink a cocktail of lethal barbiturates at the same Lifecircle Clinic where London businessman Simon Binner, 57, ended his life. His journey was the subject of a moving BBC documentary last February. And Marie has now asked the Sunday Mirror to document her death in a bid to raise awareness of her situation.

(Image: Sunday Mirror)

She adds: “For me, my assisted death is not something sad or tragic. On the contrary it will be a deliverance from a cruel illness, which has destroyed my life.

“I also want to praise staff at St Mark’s Hospital, in Harrow, who provided excellent care over more than three decades. My GP also gave excellent care. However, I cannot say the same about social services. And that is why I find myself here.”

Bucks County ­Council said: “We work to assess and respond to individual needs in accordance with statutory frameworks. We do not comment on individual cases for legal reasons.”

300 British patients a year choosing death

Latest figures show 300 people a year are choosing to end their own lives in the UK due to a terminal illness.

Around 25 go to Swiss clinics like Dignitas, near Zurich, and Lifecircle – the Basel centre where Marie will go.

A recent YouGov survey revealed that almost half of Brits would like to have the option of assisted suicide if they found themselves with an incurable disease.

But assisted dying is illegal in the UK. The Coroner and Justice Act 2009 also makes it an offence to encourage or assist suicide and it carries a 14-year prison service.

But in 2010 the Director of Public Prosecutions issued guidelines which indicate anyone acting with compassion to help end the life of someone who has decided they cannot go on would be unlikely to face criminal charges.

(Image: Getty Images)

The document was published after a Law Lords ruling in favour of multiple sclerosis sufferer Debbie Purdy, 51.

In Switzerland, the law is more relaxed and since 1942 has allowed assisted suicide so long as there are no “self-seeking motives” involved.

In 2009, Dignitas revealed it had helped 114 Britons die. They included 36 with cancer, 27 with motor neurone disease and 17 with MS. Eight had crippling non-terminal illnesses – including two with Crohn’s disease.

300,000 suffering through Crohn's and other forms of IBD

By Sarah Porch, Director of Support Services, Crohn's and Colitis UK

Crohn’s disease is a very serious health condition that affects people very differently due to the complexity of the symptoms, treatments and the sheer challenges imposed on everyday life.

Crohn’s and Colitis UK is a national charity leading the battle against Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. We’re fighting to achieve a better quality of life for the 300,000 UK people suffering physically and emotionally due to these and other forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Ultimately, we want to find a cure.

Every 30 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis – the two main forms of IBD. Symptoms can include diarrhoea (often with blood), severe pain, extreme fatigue and dramatic weight loss.

At present there is no cure, but drugs and sometimes surgery can give long periods of relief.

We provide high quality information and personal care, support life-changing research and campaign vigorously for more knowledge, better services and more support. We won’t stop fighting until we’ve won.

If you have any concerns call our confidential helpline 0300 2225700 or go to www.crohnsandcolitis.org.uk