Hugh Grant pays tribute to 'right to die' campaigner

Hollywood actor Hugh Grant has led tributes to a champion of assisted suicide who died from pancreatic cancer.

The Notting Hill and Love Actually star described Dr Ann McPherson as "amazing" after she died on Saturday aged 65.

The GP was an outspoken campaigner of the terminally ill's right to die with dignity at a time of their choosing.

But it was in her capacity as medical director of the charity healthtalkonline that she met and worked with Grant, who is a patron.

Earlier this month he accepted the British Medical Journal's Communicator of the Year Award on her behalf, along with her husband Klim McPherson.

Grant said: "Ann was an amazing woman - doctor, author, campaigner and founder of the the inspired healthtalkonline.

"I am so delighted she nagged me into helping with it and I'm so sorry for her family, for medicine and for the country that she's gone."
The mother-of-three was a patron of Dignity in Dying and founder of Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying (HPAD).

Speaking on behalf of her family, Beth Hale, one of the doctor's children said: "Above all, she was a truly wonderful wife, mum and granny.

"Her ability, apparently so effortless, to combine her professional life with her family life should provide inspiration to working women everywhere.

"Many of her happiest times were spent relaxing with her family in the south of France or north Oxford and she was never short of fun ideas and activities for her beloved grandchildren.
"Her death leaves a huge gap in many lives and her husband, three children and five grandchildren, with one on the way, can only hope in some way to do justice to her formidable spirit."

The grandmother-of-five was born in London but lived and worked in Oxford for the last 35 years.
She and Dr Aidan Macfarlane co-wrote the Teenage Health Freak series of books, which sold more than one million copies worldwide and were translated into 22 languages.

The two doctors jointly ran a virtual online surgery for young people.

The GP was a former chair of the Royal College of General Practitioner's Adolescent Task Group and a member of the last government's Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group.

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: "All at Dignity in Dying are saddened by Ann's death.

"In the two years since she became involved, Ann has done a huge amount for the campaign and she leaves an incredible legacy.

"The fact that she founded HPAD - an organisation that now has over 400 members - was an active patron of Dignity in Dying and continued to work tirelessly on other projects close to her heart, all at the late stages of terminal cancer, is a testament to her strength and tenacity."

Joe Collier, acting HPAD chair said: "Ann helped found HPAD expressly because she herself was terminally ill and wanted others in her position to have the choice of dying with dignity.

"We all knew she would die soon, and could not but be inspired by her courage, her drive, her selflessness and her unstinting leadership in her last years.

"We will miss her terribly but in her spirit we will work to change the law so that the cruelty - her word - of those who let her suffer horribly will soon be a thing of the past."

Ray Tallis, a retired professor of geriatric medicine and member of the HPAD steering group, said: "She was a woman of immense courage.
"An immensely gifted doctor who was passionate about communicating with patients and ensuring their choices were respected.

"Her legacy in establishing HPAD was entirely consistent with her entire approach to medicine.
"Her clear-eyed and objective view of death was an extraordinary example of moral courage."