AFTER years of pain and suffering, a Worcester man says he plans to travel abroad to legally end his own life.

Anthony Hayes, 59, who has Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), will go to a clinic in Switzerland for assisted suicide, but he believes that euthanasia should be made legal in the UK.

Mr Hayes, who says he was abused as a child, has told his family and friends that he wants to commit suicide.

He has approached the Swiss group Dignitas, which provides assisted or accompanied suicide, and is going through the process before finding out whether they will accept him for euthanasia at their clinic.

Mr Hayes told the Worcester News: "Euthanasia definitely should be made legal. We are far too politically correct and not liberal enough.

"You have to go to a clinic in Switzerland. They give you a tablet, which makes you go to sleep and you don't wake up.

"I am sometimes in unbearable and uncontrollable pain."

Mr Hayes added: "I feel so passionate about this and I am being penalised. I am having to go down this route because for me to hang myself, or throw myself in front of a train, which I have thought about, would be more trauma for my family."

Mr Hayes said his BPD stems from being abused as a child, and described his childhood as filled with "pressures most people don't have to deal with."

"My father was mentally ill," he added. "I had no brothers or sisters or grandparents. I had to look after my mother and father with no support.

"A lot of people are abused when growing up – it can be emotional abuse, it is quite common. In my job I speak to a lot of people who have been abused."

Mr Hayes, who lives in Barbourne, has worked for an opinion poll company but is not currently working due to his health.

The NHS defines BPD as ‘a disorder of mood and how a person interacts with others’.

Mr Hayes said he has long periods of depression and experiences severe pain.

“I have never been happy, which is common with BPD," he said. "I don’t know the concept of happiness.”

He added: "Unfortunately there is still a stigma. For me to try and form a relationship with a lady is difficult, it can scare them off."

Mr Hayes said he also finds it hard to form relationships due to detachment disorder relating to his condition.

He said he has received Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and has been prescribed medication throughout his life, but nothing has helped him.

Alistair Thompson, from the group Care Not Killing, which campaigns against assisted dying and euthanasia, said making it legal in the UK would be dangerous.

"We strongly oppose changing the law because there is a danger of a right to die becoming a duty to die," he said.

"In the states of Washington and Oregon more than half of those choosing to end their life are doing so because they feel they are a financial burden or a care burden on their families. People with degenerative or terminal illnesses could feel pressured into ending their lives.

"In Belgium and Holland, there have been massive extensions to include people with dementia, psychiatric conditions, and mentally incompetent children. We aim to protect vulnerable people against that pressure."

Currently, euthanasia is only legal in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Assisted dying is where a terminally ill person has help from a doctor to end their life, i.e. they provide a prescription for the medication and the individual drinks it or presses the syringe.

Assisted suicide is where someone who is not dying, but might be chronically ill or suffering in some other way, receives help to end their own life. It is legal in Switzerland and Canada.