Pensioner allowed to die at her home
A SHIREBROOK pensioner has been given the right to die in the former pit house she fought to live in more than 30 years ago.
Seventy-seven-year-old Val Wright battled the local coal board in 1976 to earn her tenancy in the home — making her the first single mother in the country to do so.
Val began her two-year battle to secure a home for her and her children after divorcing her husband and demanding the right to keep the family home.
The battle earned Val national fame and she has been recognised as a pioneer for women's rights.
And 35 years later, Val, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, has been allowed to remain in her house and avoid going to hospital thanks to a new NHS scheme which sees social workers visiting her at home.
Val said: "When I got this illness I was spending seven weeks in hospital and three weeks at home but I didn't want to be in the hospital.
"If I'd been put in a home I wouldn't be here because I wouldn't want it. It's not my life."
Social worker Tina Stephenson, who makes regular visits to Val alongside Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust matron Lynne Yates, said: "Val is at the end stage and she wants to be supported in her own home.
"It's her dream to stay in the home she fought for — even if she became acutely unwell, wild horses wouldn't drag her off, it's her dream to stay in the home she fought for."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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