Brother and sister Kevin and Joy Eccleston tell the story of their parents' suicide pact.

On a cold February morning, eighty-year-old Mavis Eccleston from Staffordshire woke up in hospital to find that her suicide bid had failed. She had shared a lethal dose of sleeping pills with her husband, but doctors had managed to revive her. In the bed next to hers, her husband was dying.

Mavis’s children had known about their parents’ plans to die together, and were supporting their mother as she recovered in hospital. But two days later, Mavis was arrested, and charged with her husband’s murder. This is her story.

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Produced by Lee Stone.

Digital producer: Rachael Smith.

Originally broadcast on BBC Radio WM. Show less