I couldn’t stay at the hospice

The families

Monica Leighton wanted to die at the home she had lived in for 34 years. She helped to build the bungalow with her husband, Malcolm Leighton, in the “gorgeous setting” of West Bay near Lyme Regis.

“If she had to die, she would have chosen to be at home. But it didn’t work out that way,” he said.

Malcolm, 68, had been married to Monica for 45 years. He had been taking care of her at home since she had been diagnosed with a malignant melanoma in her arm four and a half years ago. At the time, she had been in remission, but after falling and breaking her jaw in an accident, tests revealed that she had lung cancer.

“She had chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It was all a horrible nightmare, constantly pushing her wheelchair through car parks into hospitals and back out again,” said Malcolm.

Earlier this year, her condition deteriorated rapidly. She was taken to a nearby hospice but told that it was merely to stabilise her before she could return home. She initially refused to go, but Malcolm persuaded her that it was the “last chance saloon for some extra life”.

Malcolm wanted to stay with Monica the night she died, but was told that beds were available only for family members who lived farther away than him.

“The last thing I said to her was ‘you’re still as beautiful as you ever were, I love you darling. She said ‘I love you too. Goodnight, I’ll see you in the morning.’”

He returned home, only to be called in the early hours of the morning by the hospice to tell him she had passed away.

“It’s a double-edged sword. I might have been very distressed at her death at home, maybe the NHS in their wisdom decided better of it,” he said.

Though he welcomed the Government’s announcement today on care for the terminally ill, he believes it has come too late for him.

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