Dignity in Dying’s My Dying Wish Campaign Wins Pagefield’s Digital Campaign of the Year Award.
The My Dying Wish campaign – fronted by three campaigners with lived experience of the harms of the current law, Anil Douglas, Jenny Carruthers, and Sophie Blake – incorporated powerful personal experience into a range of campaign moments ahead of the Second Reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life Bill) in November last year. The campaign culminated with a stunt outside the House of Commons on 14 November 2025 which displayed the dying wishes of 650 people who support change on 17 trees – one for each person who dies suffering each day despite the best care. This action attracted significant media attention including featuring on Politics Live, PA, and being featured as one of The Guardian’s Photos of the Day.
This award comes as Kim Leadbeater MBE MP’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill continues to progress through Parliament, after MPs backed it at its Second Reading in November by a majority of 55. If passed, this Bill would legalise assisted dying for terminally ill, mentally competent adults, introducing practical measures to provide meaningful choice for those who need it, and protections for everyone at the end of life. It is currently undergoing its fifth week of line-by-line scrutiny by a cross-party group of MPs as part of Committee stage, before it goes back to the full House of Commons for amendments at Report stage and then a further debate and vote on the amended Bill at Third Reading. If MPs support the Bill at this stage it will progress to the House of Lords for further scrutiny, amendments and debate.
Kim also won a Pagefield Award last night for Political Speech of the Year for her speech at the Bill’s Second Reading and received a nomination for Political Campaigner of the Year for her work as the sponsor of the assisted dying Bill. Unable to attend the ceremony due a sitting of the Bill Committee, Sophie Blake, a passionate supporter of the Bill who has terminal secondary breast cancer, accepted the award on Kim’s behalf.
Sarah Wootton, Chief Executive of Dignity in Dying said:
“On behalf of the whole team at Dignity in Dying, I am proud to accept the Pagefield Award for Digital Campaign of the Year. This award is for Noel Conway, Debbie Purdy, Dianna Melly, and Paola Marra who fought for this change but are not here to see the profound impact of their work. It’s for Ian Douglas, Alison Fenner, David Minns, Pippa Stone, Lisa Cooke and many more whose children continue to fight for the choice that they were denied. It is for Sophie Blake, Jenny Carruthers and all terminally ill people for whom law change would bring hope and peace of mind.
“This campaign is and always has been about real people and their experiences. It is ever clearer that the laws and choices governing how we die are no longer fit for purpose. As with much social change, the public are ahead on this with 79% of the public calling for reform to bring these laws into the 21st Century.
“Today’s MPs have the opportunity to vote for a bill that is safe, fair and compassionate, consign the cruelty and danger of the status quo to the history books, and give dying people the choice that too many are currently denied.
“It speaks to the salience and universality of the fundamental question of how we die that this campaign has cut through and is on its way to bringing meaningful change to England and Wales.”
Sophie Blake, campaigner for assisted dying who is living with stage 4 secondary breast cancer, said:
“I am so grateful to Kim Leadbeater MP, Dignity in Dying and the movement of people backing law change for their tireless commitment to pursuing choice for terminally ill people like me. Knowing that we are finally moving closer to a safe, compassionate law on assisted dying has given me a glimmer of hope.
“This campaign represents the possibility of having a say over my own death and sparing my daughter the trauma of watching me suffer. Like many others facing terminal illness, I love my life, and I don’t want to die, but I also don’t want to endure unbearable pain with no option to choose a peaceful death.
“If the time comes when I can no longer tolerate the suffering, I want to be able to make that decision; to die at home, surrounded by the people I love. So, thank you, Kim, for giving this issue the recognition it deserves and the ambassador it needed to progress”
*ENDS*
For more information or interview requests, please email Tom Steen, Media and Campaigns Officer at Dignity in Dying, tom.steen@dignityindying.org.uk or call 07356135578