Doctor, writer and campaigner Kathryn Mannix on love, last wishes and the divisive debate over assisted dying. There is only one topic trickier than death, according to Kathryn Mannix , who has made it her life’s work. “We’re embarrassed to talk about love.
We’re not very good at talking about dying and deaths. Oh my goodness, we’re terrible at talking about love. We’re awful at it.
” Why? “It’s about being vulnerable — if I tell you that I love you and you don’t love me back.” In 30 years working in hospices and hospitals as a palliative care doctor, Mannix has seen love and death at close quarters. Many people at the “edge of life, not everybody but a lot, have reached a place [where] they get what [life’s] all about, it’s much bigger than stuff and reputation.
It all comes down to self-worth and realising the worth of other people...
There’s a danger that we leave it to the last moments and wait for the Hollywood last awakening where the person wakes up and [says], ‘I loved you all along.’ And that doesn’t happen..
. Lots of people [feel] very disappointed.” Since retiring in 2016 as a consultant in palliative medicine, and regional lead in the North East and North Cumbria for palliative and end-of-life care, Mannix has made it her mission to talk about death and dying, encouraging people to have meaningful conversations about last wishes and love before it is too late.
The success of her 2017 book With the End in Mind has given her a .
