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MS sufferer who pioneered treatment kills herself
Aline Nassif22 Jun 2009
A leading academic who pioneered treatment for multiple sclerosis but could no longer live with the disease herself has taken her own life.
Cari Loder left a suicide note earlier this month that read: “I don't want to be resuscitated.”
Ms Loder, 48, a former lecturer at London University's Institute of Education, ordered helium online to kill herself at her Surrey home on 8 June.
A 70-year-old neighbour has been arrested over the death. But today the doctor who gave Ms Loder “emotional support” three days before her death insisted no one else was involved.
Dr Libby Wilson, a retired GP and member of pressure group Friends at the End (Fate), which supports assisted suicide, said: “Cari was determined to take her life, and she did without any help from anyone. She didn't want to confide in anyone because she was afraid she might make them complicit in her decision, and that they would come under criminal investigation.
“Cari explained to me precisely how she had gone about ordering the paraphernalia to help her take her life and did ask for reassurance that she was doing it the right way.
“She read out her suicide note to me. It read: To whom this may concern: I've done this entirely unaided. No one assisted me to do it, and I don't want to be resuscitated'.”
Dr Wilson continued: “Carol would be appalled to hear that someone had been arrested over her suicide.
“She was angry enough at the laws in this country that compelled her to do it all by herself, instead of being given a pill that would put her into a sleep. This arrest is an added insult.”
In 1994, Ms Loder made an accidental discovery in the treatment of MS after combining an anti-depressant, an amino acid and a vitamin. This concoction — known as the “Cari Loder regime” — helped with her condition at the time, but a medical trial concluded more research was needed.
By the time Ms Loder decided to take her own life, her condition had deteriorated so she could barely walk and was losing sensation in her hands.
She is said to have feared being sent to a care home — and was determined to take her life before she was unable to.
Dr Wilson said: “Carol was one example of someone who was losing all quality of life, and she made her decision for all the right reasons.”
A Surrey police spokesman said “a man in his seventies from the Godalming area” was arrested over the death.
