Marie Fleming
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26 December 1953
Marie Fleming | |
|---|---|
| Born | Eileen Mary Brolly 26 December 1953 Lifford, County Donegal, Ireland |
| Died | 20 December 2013 (aged 59) Arklow, County Wicklow, Ireland |
Marie Fleming (26 December 1953 – 20 December 2013) was an Irish campaigner for assisted suicide.[1]
Marie Fleming was born Eileen Mary Brolly in Lifford, County Donegal on 26 December 1953. Her parents were Daniel, a painter and decorator, and Annette Brolly (née Maxwell). She was the eldest of five children, with one sister and three brothers. In 1969, Fleming's mother left the family following an affair with Paddy McGowan, a local Fianna Fáil senator and businessman. This resulted in Fleming leaving school to care for her siblings. Fleming became pregnant at age 16 by her boyfriend, Johnny 'Jumbo' McNally. She was sent to Belfast to a mother and baby home. Despite pressure to place the baby up for adoption from her father and the parish priest, Fleming left the home with her daughter, Corrinna. She married McNally, and the couple moved into a council house in Strabane. They split up after a short amount of time, with Fleming going to work as a supervisor in a clothing manufacturer to support the family. Following her divorce in 1977, she met Alan Fleming, who she married in 1981. The couple had one son, Simon.[1]
Fleming returned to education, enrolling in a technical college in Strabane. The family moved to Derry, and Fleming worked on a scheme teaching industrial sewing to unemployed young people, and then from 1983 as an administrator at Magee College. At this time she started studying part-time for a degree in business. While on a holiday in Gran Canaria in September 1987, Fleming experienced dizziness, intense light sensitivity and disorientation. When she returned to Northern Ireland, she was given a diagnosis of suspected multiple sclerosis (MS). After her husband lost his job in Dungannon, the family moved to Swansea where he had found a new job. Here Fleming received confirmation of the MS diagnosis. Fleming continued to work, working full-time at the University of Wales and studying for an MBA part-time. Three years after her initial diagnosis, her MS attacks worsened, but she hide these as short-term illnesses from her colleagues and friends. In 1993, she separated from her husband and returned to Ireland to work in University College Dublin. She lived at the family's former holiday cottage in Woodenbridge, County Wicklow with her son. Hiding her condition for as long as possible, she resigned from UCD and took up a position lecturing on women's studies in Arklow as part of a back-to-school programme for adults.[1]
Fleming met her life partner, Tom Curran, in 1995. She had her worst MS attack in 1997, and was admitted to St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin. This attack left her with a slight limp in her left leg, and with the attacks that followed becoming more severe, she was forced to stop working. Curran left his IT consultancy job to become her full-time carer in 2003. Fleming was dependent on a wheelchair by 2004, was in pain constantly and had begun to lose feeling in her hands.[1]
