A right to die campaigner has renewed her call for the island to introduce assisted dying legislation - after being diagnosed with aggressive cancer.

Millie Blenkinsop-French, 75, from Douglas, was diagnosed for a second time with breast cancer earlier this year, but delays to her treatment allowed the disease to spread.

Mrs Blenkinsop-French, who petitioned Tynwald in 2014 to set up a select committee on assisted dying, was speaking out ahead of a Positive Action Group meeting that will feature guest speakers from Dignity in Dying, a a not for profit organisation whose members and supporters campaign to legalise assisted dying within upfront safeguards, for terminally ill, mentally competent adults.

She said: ’I’ve got cancer. I’ve spoken to a number of different people who knew people who have died from cancer and it had been quite painful for them,’ she said.

’I don’t want that. I want to die without pain and I want to have the choice to go when I want to go.’

Mrs Blenkinsop-French explained that a family member was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year.

After reaching the stage of needing assistance to get around the house, the family member decided they had suffered enough and travelled to Holland where assisted dying is legal.

There, three doctors, who don’t meet to discuss the patient, must each be told separately by the patient they are ready to die.

They then administer three separate injections which allows the person to fall asleep and die painlessly.

Mrs Blenkinsop-French said: ’I remember talking with my brother when I was younger and we were talking about death and he said to me "I don’t fear dying, it’s just how I die".

’I saw an article on assisted dying in a magazine a little while after that conversation and I have supported the right to die with dignity ever since.

’And a few years ago, I was put in contact with Tom Davies from Dignity in Dying UK who is going to speak at the Positive Action Group meeting next week.’

Mrs Blenkinsop-French explained how this culminated in her delivering a petition of grievance on Tynwald day in 2014.

Following her petition, Speaker Juan Watterson sought leave in the House of Keys to introduce a private member’s bill while he was Home Affairs Minister, saying those who are terminally ill should have a choice over how they die.

However, MHKs rejected giving leave to introduce the bill by 17 votes to five.

Since then, Mrs Blenkinsop-French has twice been diagnosed with breast cancer.

She said: ’I had cancer before and it was treated using alternative medicines, however it later came back.’

She was diagnosed with triple negative grade three cancer earlier this year and had her breast removed on June 7.

But the email and fax from her surgeon in the island to the oncologist at Clatterbridge Hospital on Merseyside relating to her chemotherapy treatment was lost in the system. In the intervening three months, her cancer spread had spread.

An email from Oliver Radford, divisional manager of the surgical division at Noble’s Hospital confirmed: ’We have investigated internally and can confirm that your referral was emailed and faxed over on the June 21, therefore it would seem as if the issue was within Clatterbridge itself.’

Mrs Blenkinsop-French doesn’t blame Noble’s Hospital at all.

She praised the treatment she has received in the island as being ’amazing’.

The Positive Action Group meeting on ’dignity and choice in dying’ will be presented by Tom Davies, director of campaigns and communications at Dignity in Dying and Mick Murray, a supporter of DiD who has accompanied two friends with terminal illness to Dignitas in Switzerland.

Both men will be sharing their experiences of assisted dying before opening the floor to a discussion with those in attendance.

The meeting takes place at the Manx Legion in Douglas at 7.30pm on Monday, November 26.

In May this year, an attempt to legalise assisted dying in Guernsey was defeated in the island’s parliament after a three-day debate.

The proposal sought to adopt the Oregon model, restricting euthanasia to people with a diagnosis of terminal illness with less than six months to live and full mental capacity.