A devoted daughter who accompanied her mother to Dignitas is urging everyone who supports assisted dying to write to their MP before next week’s crucial vote.

Carmen Alkalai, 52, has been fighting for eight years to change the law after terminally ill Sandy chose to end her life in a Swiss clinic.

She said: “Of course you want to keep your loved one as long as possible, but at the same time I could see that my mother was a shell of a woman. I’m a firm believer that if you want it, you should have that choice.

Artist Sandy was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in June 2015 after her foot started dragging and her voice changed.

The “fiercely independent” 62-year-old, who raised her two daughters alone after becoming widowed at just 23, said she wanted to control her death.

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Her illness progressed quickly and within months she looked 10 years older and could only speak in a whisper, Carmen said.

Sandy could barely move or use her fingers and had difficulty swallowing, often choking on her own saliva.

She received palliative care, but Carmen said “it wasn’t the right thing for her.” She didn’t want to move into a retirement home or remain “locked in her own body”, unable to do things she loved like painting.

Carmen and her sister Victoria made sure their mother considered all options. Carmen said: “We were very clear with her that if she wanted to continue we would take care of her at home and dedicate ourselves to that.

“Even in the car on the way (to Dignitas), I kept saying, ‘Mom, are you sure you want to do this? Because we can all go home now and we’ll take care of you.’ It never felt like we were getting carried away.

But Sandy had made up her mind and after spending weeks filling out the necessary paperwork, the trio flew to Switzerland in February 2016.

Carmen, a single mother, feared arrest. She said: “You start to get paranoid. We printed tourist brochures so that if they asked us what we were doing, we could say we were traveling. »

Meeting with a Dignitas doctor, Sandy removed her sunglasses and looked him in the eyes confirming that she was 100% sure of her decision.

They went to the clinic the next day. Carmen recalls: “Until then, I had managed to hold on and was on autopilot mode. Mom was completely calm, but I realized I was completely devastated. I cried but I still understood that this was what had to happen.

An IV was set up with a button that Sandy could press to administer the medications. Carmen said: “I guess I had a picture in my head, that she was going to look at me and my sister holding her hand and say, ‘Girls, I love you.’

“But she didn’t, she just pressed the button. There was no hesitation. She pressed the button and within seconds her eyes closed and she was dead.

The trip cost around £15,000 and Sandy’s family, who are Jewish, were unable to arrange a proper funeral service. Carmen returned to Switzerland three weeks later to collect his ashes.

Carmen, from Crouch End, north London, said she felt it was right to help her mother die the way she wanted.

But she added: “It was so traumatic for her to leave her home and have to fly when she could barely move. We could have had it for three or four weeks longer if we had stayed in the UK.

The grieving daughter promised Sandy she would fight to change the law and now regularly campaigns at events with Dignity in Dying.

She said of the bill due to be debated next Friday: “All of us who fought for this, I sincerely believe we will get it this time. I think it’s impossible to ignore public opinion and this will be a monumental occasion.”

Carmen urged MPs to speak to terminally ill people and their families, and she called on all those who support the bill to make their wishes known.

She said: “Now is the time to write to your MP and ask them to vote for it.”