A mother who admitted killing her terminally ill son with a large dose of morphine in 1981 has died after her own battle with cancer.
Antonya Cooper, 77, died at the weekend after battling incurable breast, pancreatic and liver cancer.
This comes shortly after she admitted giving the dose to her seven-year-old son Hamish, who had stage 4 cancer and was “facing the most horrendous suffering” before his death in 1981.
The former chairman of Neuroblastoma UK revealed the youngster had been “in a lot of pain” as he came to the end of his short life.
In a statement to he BBCMs Cooper’s daughter said she died at home surrounded by her family and was “at peace” and “without pain”.
Tabitha said: “It was exactly the way she wanted it. She lived life on her terms and died on her terms.”
This comes after officers visited the family following Hamish’s death.
Antonya Cooper with her son Hamish after his bone marrow autograft in 1980
Mrs Cooper’s son Hamish is pictured smiling in late 1974.
He said Hamish faced unimaginable suffering and was in “intense pain” as he battled stage 4 cancer before his death in 1981.
Hamish, patriotic, with a Union flag on his hospital bed. He spent 16 months undergoing “beastly” cancer treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital after being diagnosed aged five.
Ms Cooper previously said Hamish “would tell me he was in pain and ask if I could help him” and that as a mother she “wasn’t going to let him suffer”.
The brave young man had been battling neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that affects children, since he was five and had been given just three months to live.
And despite 16 months of “beastly” cancer treatment at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, Hamish’s incurable disease had left him in constant agony.
Since Mrs Cooper shared her decision to give her toddler a large dose of morphine more than four decades ago, Thames Valley Police have launched an investigation.
A police spokesman previously said: ‘Thames Valley Police is aware of reports relating to an apparent case of assisted dying of a seven-year-old boy in 1981.
‘At this early stage, the force is investigating these reports and is not in a position to comment further while enquiries continue.’
Speaking about her decision to give her little boy a large dose of morphine, Mrs Cooper previously said: “It was the right thing to do. My son was in terrible pain and I wasn’t going to let him go through that.”
Antonya Cooper among bluebells at Bagley Wood in April 2024
BBC Radio Oxford asked Antonya if she understood she was potentially admitting manslaughter or murder, and she replied: “Yes.”
(Pictured: Hamish in Pembrokeshire with his grandmother in 1974)
Ms Cooper described in harrowing detail how she helped her son die after he begged her to ease his suffering.
“Last night when Hamish said he was in a lot of pain, I asked him: ‘Do you want me to take the pain away?’ and he said: ‘Yes please, Mum’,” Mrs Cooper told BBC Radio Oxford.
‘And through his external Hickman catheter, I gave him a large dose of morphine that silently ended his life.’
Speaking about his decision last May, he added: “We had seen him bravely deal with all that beastly treatment, we had had him for longer than the original prognosis, so it was the right time.”
The dying 77-year-old was asked by BBC Radio Oxford if she thought her son knew she intended to take his life.
Mrs Cooper said she would have honest conversations with Hamish and his sister Tabitha (left), who were “a couple of thieves”, about the “probability of him not surviving”.
“I feel strongly that the moment Hamish told me he was in pain and asked if I could help him with the pain, he knew, he knew somehow, what was going to happen,” she said.
“But obviously I can’t tell you why or how, but I was his mother, he loved his mother, and I loved him completely, and I wasn’t going to let him suffer, and I feel like he really knew where he was going.”
Ms Cooper’s admission came as she was campaigning to change the law on assisted dying.
Assisted suicide (the act of intentionally helping someone end their life) and euthanasia (the deliberate ending of a person’s life) are both illegal in the UK.
Hamish died at his home on 1 December 1981.
In 1979, after his fifth birthday, Hamish began to cry in pain and lose weight; and with a mother’s instinct, Antonya knew he was “seriously ill”.
But it took 13 weeks of visits to seven different GPs before she decided to take Hamish to see a private paediatrician at the John Radcliffe Hospital – and even then, she was told “there was nothing wrong”.
Mrs Cooper spoke about how she gave him a “large dose” of morphine to “quietly end his life”
Antonya ‘insisted’ on further tests, including blood tests and an X-ray, and it later emerged that Hamish had a grapefruit-sized tumour in his abdomen – a stage 4 neuroblastoma.
Hamish was then transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) where he underwent chemotherapy, a bone marrow autograft, radiotherapy and surgery to remove the cancerous tissue, which had shrunk to the size of a tangerine.
His prognosis was three months and he subsequently underwent 16 months of treatment at GOSH, which “ruined parts of his body” but prolonged his life.
Antonya said she would have honest conversations with Hamish and his sister Tabitha, who were “thick as thieves”, about the “probability of him not surviving”.
Although Hamish did not ask directly about death, there came a point later when, in response to one of his questions, Antonya told him: “Yes, Hamish, you will probably die.”
It was an incredible challenge, but after finishing her treatments, she returned to school, her hair began to grow again, and in the summer of 1981, the family enjoyed a vacation by the sea.
However, in the autumn, Hamish suffered a blow to one of his ankles and developed septic arthritis, leading to biopsies which later revealed his cancer had “come back with a vengeance”.
By then, Ms Cooper said, “they knew that was the final journey” and, after receiving palliative care at home and being given morphine sulphate, Hamish died on 1 December 1981.
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