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Ashes of right-to-die campaigner to be scattered today

Mad Dogs Rugby Sevens team at a tournament in Bodiam in 1977. Tony is centre back.
Mad Dogs Rugby Sevens team at a tournament in Bodiam in 1977. Tony is centre back.

The ashes of right-to-die campaigner Tony Nicklinson will be scattered today at a rugby ground where he used to play.

Mr Nicklinson's widow Jane and their daughters Lauren and Beth are due to travel to Cranbrook rugby club where he played as a young man.

After his ashes have been scattered by his family, the Mad Dogs will play Cranbrook in honour of Mr Nicklinson, nicknamed "Royals" because his father was in the Royal Marines.

Mr Nicklinson, from Melksham, Wiltshire, who suffered from locked-in syndrome, died aged 58 on August 22 last year, days after losing a landmark High Court right-to-die case.

He had been refusing food in the days leading up to his death and contracted pneumonia. Up until 2005, when he was paralysed by a stroke while on a business trip to Athens, Mr Nicklinson had been an active sportsman.

Remembering his late friend, rugby club spokesman Gezz Higgins said: "I met Royals when I joined Cranbrook rugby club and I played in the first team regularly throughout the time he was playing at Cranbrook.

"He and I were both single at the time and therefore we did a lot of socialising together. He was just a charming, charismatic character who was also a good rugby player."

Before he died, three judges sitting at the High Court in London referred to the "terrible predicament" of Mr Nicklinson and described his case as "deeply moving and tragic".

But Lord Justice Toulson, Mr Justice Royce and Mrs Justice Macur unanimously agreed it would be wrong for the court to depart from the long-established legal position that "voluntary euthanasia is murder, however understandable the motives may be".

They said doctors and solicitors who encouraged or assisted another person to commit suicide were "at real risk of prosecution".

Since Mr Nicklinson's death, his family have vowed to continue his right-to-die campaign, and launched an internet page to help raise cash which will contribute towards legal costs.

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