Wendy Mitchell dead: Author and dementia campaigner announces own death with powerful open letter

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Author Wendy Mitchell has died after living with dementia for years and left a final message announcing her own death. “Yes, dementia is a bummer, but oh what a life I’ve had playing games with this adversary of mine to try and stay one step ahead.” Mitchell lived in Walkington, East Yorkshire, and authored the acclaimed 2018 memoir Somebody I Used To Know and, four years later, What I Wish I Knew About Dementia. The only legal choice we shouldn’t have in life is when to be born; for everything else, we, as humans, should have a choice; a choice of how we live and a choice of how we die.” Mitchell wrote that she had not wanted her dementia to “take me into the later stages” in which she would be reliant on others for her daily needs, saying: “The Wendy that was didn’t want to be the Wendy dementia will dictate for me.” She added: “I wasn’t depressed, I wasn’t forced or cajoled in any way whatsoever, it was solely down to my choice. You may or may not agree with what I’ve done, how and when I’ve chosen to leave this world, but the decision was totally mine.” Anna Wharton, who was a ghostwriter on Mitchell’s bestselling memoir, described the letter as “the last powerful words from my friend Wendy Mitchell”.