Beloved US radio host dies 'peacefully' at Swiss clinic with family by her side

Beloved US radio host dies 'peacefully' at Swiss clinic with family by her side Judy Markey, the beloved co-host of the popular Chicago radio programme 'Kathy and Judy Show', has died at the age of 82 after undergoing a voluntary assisted death in Switzerland The beloved co-host of a popular Chicago radio programme has died after travelling to Switzerland for a "voluntary assisted death", her family said. Judy Markey, who hosted the daily "Kathy and Judy Show" with Kathy O’Malley on WGN-AM 720 from 1989 to 2009, died on September 11 at the age of 82 with her family by her side. The show returned as a weekly Saturday morning programme from 2013 to 2017. Markey suffered from a degenerative neurological disorder and chose to have an assisted death, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The name of the clinic was not revealed. An online obituary set up by Markey's husband, Tom Collinger, described her as a "genuine one-of-a-kind" and said she made the choice to "[go] out on her terms with a voluntary assisted death in Switzerland" after "some years with her body in decline". "This choice was made having lived a full and rich lifetime in which she got 'more from it than she ever imagined'," the obituary said. In the moments before her death, she ate several bites of a Snickers bar and said she had a headache, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Collinger told the newspaper: "I said, ‘Do you want some Advil?' And she said, ‘I kind of want something a little stronger.'" He added that everyone in the room found her last joke funny. Her death came on the same day as MPs in the UK rejected a proposal to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill people, bringing the latest attempt to change the law to an end. The House of Commons rejected the legislation by 286 votes to 270 on Friday. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would have allowed mentally competent adults with fewer than six months to live to apply for assistance to end their lives, subject to approval from a panel of professionals. Markey was named one of Chicago's "One Hundred Most Influential Women" by Crain's Chicago Business. Before becoming a radio personality, Markey was a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. She also wrote for The New York Times and magazines including Cosmopolitan, and authored several books, including The Daddy Clock and How to Survive Your High School Reunion and Other Mid-Life Crises. Markey is survived by her husband, daughter Erin Markey, son Adam Markey, stepson Zach Collinger, stepdaughter Kate Collinger Buxton and son-in-law Pat Buxton. She also leaves behind two granddaughters.