Blur star Dave Rowntree's terminally ill ex-wife forced to travel to Dignitas alone to end own life

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Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has shared for the first time that his terminally ill ex-wife felt forced to end her life alone in Switzerland earlier this year.

The 60-year-old expressed frustration over current legislation on assisted dying, which he argues leaves some terminally ill individuals with a "brutal" choice of desiring to end their suffering but unable to legally seek assistance.

His comments come just weeks ahead of a new bill proposing changes to the assisted dying laws in England and Wales as well as a similar bill in Scotland.

Rowntree married Paola Marra in 1994, and the couple divorced in the early 2000s. Despite their separation, he remained supportive of Marra after her diagnosis with terminal bowel cancer, ultimately respecting her decision to end her life in Zurich, Switzerland.

Marra, a Canadian, opted to fly out alone in March this year after facing several rounds of arduous treatment and surgeries, reports the Mirror. Knowing her cancer was terminal, she didn't want to face a probably painful and undignified death. Her pain was made worse due to the fact she was allergic to powerful painkillers.

Speaking six months on from his ex-wife's death at Dignitas in Switzerland, Rowntree used the word 'psychopathic' to describe the current laws related to assisted dying in the UK that he claims show "absolutely no empathy for the sufferer".

The topic of assisted dying is one that divides opinion in the UK. Many members of the public - and celebrities like Dame Esther Rantzen - want the government to follow in the footsteps of the likes of New Zealand, Switzerland and Australia and allow terminally ill adults to end their life on their own terms.

Speaking in an emotional interview, Rowntree said of the current legality surrounding assisted dying: "It is the system washing its hands of difficult problems in a way that I can’t stomach. That’s the whole point of the state.

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"The state can declare war … And if the state isn’t going to take these kind of difficult decisions, what the f**k is the point in having the state? This is psychopathic, where we are now, because the whole point of this [should be] to try to make things easier for the real victim in this – the terminally ill person."

The drummer, who also lost his father to bowel cancer this year, shared with The Guardian that he initially tried to dissuade his ex-wife from traveling to Switzerland to end her life.

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