Dame Sheila Hancock said she is “not against” calls for a new law on assisted dying in the UK, but insisted the country needs to “improve palliative care”.
The British actress, who is vice president of St Christopher’s Hospice, appeared at an event at Dulwich College to raise funds for the hospice which ensures that “people can live until the moment that they die”.
It comes as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is set to be debated and likely voted on on November 29, the first Commons vote on assisted dying since 2015.
Only terminally ill adults with less than six months to live who have a settled wish to end their lives would be eligible under the new law.
“The most important thing is to improve palliative care so there is no need for assisted dying,” Dame Sheila told the PA news agency at the London event.
“If we can care for people properly, there would be no need.
“But at the moment, until we get to that stage, I’m not against it.”
Dame Sheila said she became “deeply involved” with St Christopher’s Hospice when her first husband was diagnosed with cancer and she was taught how to nurse him at home where he later died.
The 91-year-old said she would “love to be cared for by palliative care, so that I could die gently at home like both my husbands did and my mother”.
“That’s the idea, but I can understand if we don’t improve palliative care, people are going to want to take their own route out sooner than they need to,” she told PA.
“I think it would be much better if people could die peacefully at home, but preferably cared for palliatively until the end.”
Dame Sheila said she is “angry with death because it is going to stop me discovering new things” but added: “I’m not frightened of death”.
“As long as I’m cared for by the likes of St Christopher’s, I have no fear of it at all,” she said.
The actress, who is known for her TV and film roles which have included The Wildcats Of St Trinian’s, Edie, The Rag Trade, Mr Digby Darling and Now, Take My Wife along with her West End theatre performances, said she can “barely walk” at the moment after injuring her back “pushing chairs around”.
However, the star told PA that the key is to “keep going”.
“A lot of people would say, ‘Okay, I’m going home to lie down’ – I won’t, I’ll go on and I’ll do a show.
“And I think very often in old age, if you force yourself to do things, you find that you can.
“It’s very easy to say, I feel a bit poorly today I’ll sit and watch the telly. It’s disastrous if you do that, you can barely get up.
“I can’t if I sit for an hour watching the telly, I can hardly stand.”