Holly Warland has a rare, incurable condition which has made her want to take her own life.
A former straight A student who feels she “lost the genetic lottery” after a rare, incurable condition robbed her of a shining future is “documenting her death” on Instagram, in a bid to make voluntary assisted dying legal.
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Holly Warland has a rare, incurable condition which has made her want to take her own life.
Courageous Holly Warland’s compelling insight into life with Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD) – a painful genetic condition where the muscles progressively waste away, predominantly on the hips and shoulders – is intended to “raise awareness of people who want to die with dignity.”
She continued: “We are broken and sometimes we have to accept that and the fact that it’s permanent.
At the moment, Holly’s condition means she is mostly bedbound, or in a wheelchair – needing help with most tasks requiring mobility, like showering and going to the toilet.
“When I’ve had enough, I want to be able to decide to end my life, but I may need help and I don’t want anyone to be prosecuted for assisting me.”
“We shouldn’t treat disabled people as though they all have a death wish, but we should at least let them have that choice.”
It was only when she saw her doctor complaining of a cold and she became concerned that everyone realised it was something far more serious.
Holly knew her condition meant she would get weaker, but continued living as she always had done, regardless.
While Holly worked through this difficult patch, it was the wake-up call that made her realise she wanted to be able to take her own life one day.
And she hopes posts of her unfiltered experience on Instagram – made with the help of her boyfriend, part-time photographer and videographer Luke Amos, 29 – will help people to understand why she feels legalisation is so important.
She said: “We can joke about it now. My mum says I’m going to write a letter and say exactly what I think of everyone before I go!
Holly taking a selfie during rough patch with her health (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
Courageous Holly Warland’s compelling insight into life with Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD) – a painful genetic condition where the muscles progressively waste away, predominantly on the hips and shoulders – is intended to “raise awareness of people who want to die with dignity.”
Deprived of her chance to become a doctor, after being forced to quit her psychology degree because of LGMD, Holly, 27, of Queensland, Australia, who was diagnosed aged 11, said: “Disabled people haven’t always got feel good stories.”
Holly still has a sense of humor despite her condition (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
She continued: “We are broken and sometimes we have to accept that and the fact that it’s permanent.
“I don’t buy into the whole ‘proud’ of my disabled body thing. I lost the genetic lottery and here I am. I’m not proud and I would happily trade my body with someone else’s.
“I consider my condition to be terminal, as I am not going to recover and it will shorten my life by, say 20 years or more.”
“I started Instagramming how my body was falling apart to raise awareness of people like me, who want to die with dignity,” Holly added.
Luke taking a selfie with Holly (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
At the moment, Holly’s condition means she is mostly bedbound, or in a wheelchair – needing help with most tasks requiring mobility, like showering and going to the toilet.
And while she could live until she is 50 or 60, she says she does not want to leave her family with a “horrid corpse” – instead wishing to opt for assisted suicide to end her life, when she feels she has had enough.
She continued: “There is no cure for people like me, only pills to ease the pain, nausea and heart complications that come with the illness.
Holly takes photos 'mid-vomit' to let her followers know what her day to day life is really like (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
“When I’ve had enough, I want to be able to decide to end my life, but I may need help and I don’t want anyone to be prosecuted for assisting me.”
Holly’s poignant words come within weeks of Louis Theroux’s controversial BBC 2 documentary Choosing Death, screened earlier this month as part of a three part series, Altered States. It explored assisted dying in California, USA, where it is legal for doctors to prescribe life-ending medication to terminally ill people.
Keen for assisted dying to be legalised in Australia, Holly continued: “There are so many laws and ways to control life, but so little to control how and when we die.
In one of Holly's Instagram posts, she bravely shows the reality of her condition (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
“We shouldn’t treat disabled people as though they all have a death wish, but we should at least let them have that choice.”
Before her diagnosis, Holly was a happy child growing up with her siblings, Adam, 25, Ben, 23 and Mia, 18, but she constantly struggled to keep up with the other kids in her PE classes.
Becoming easily exhausted, she would crash out every day when she came home after school, unable to move.
During sports days, she would hide in the toilets, pretending to be sick to avoid getting involved – the kind of behaviour which, at first, led her parents to think she was lazy, despite her being an academically capable straight A student.
Holly with her boyfriend and carer Luke (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
It was only when she saw her doctor complaining of a cold and she became concerned that everyone realised it was something far more serious.
“I thought I would just be prescribed some antibiotics, but the doctor saw that there was something else wrong with me,” said Holly.
“She noticed how slowly I moved, referred me to a specialist and within a year of monitoring and testing, I was diagnosed with LGMD.”
The devastating news hit Holly’s parents, dad Tony, 49, a real estate agent, and stay-at-home mum Teel, 58, the hardest, while she and her siblings were too young to understand the magnitude of her diagnosis.
Holly during her studies at University (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
Holly knew her condition meant she would get weaker, but continued living as she always had done, regardless.
Blessed with an excellent brain, aged 17, after using a wheelchair since 14 years old, Holly started studying at Queensland’s University of the Sunshine Coast for a degree in psychology – hoping to get her doctorate when she reached 25.
But everything changed when her LGMD took a massive turn for the worse, meaning that, in 2016, she had to quit her course because of it.
She said: “Every day I began waking up to waves of nausea, a racing pulse, sore muscles, hyperventilation, and uncontrollable shaking.
“I became depressed and suicidal but, ironically, I was so weak I couldn’t physically have killed myself even if I’d tried. I needed someone to unwrap a chocolate bar for me most of the time.”
Holly smiling for the camera as Luke documents her life (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
While Holly worked through this difficult patch, it was the wake-up call that made her realise she wanted to be able to take her own life one day.
Explaining her views on ending her life, she said: “As an atheist, I know once it’s done I’ll be extremely relieved to know there’s nothing afterwards.
“I’m not scared, Death is only hard for the people you leave behind.
“I’m not sure when it comes to it if I will be this brave, but I’ve had a lot of time to sit around in bed and think about it and I know it’s what I want, although I don’t like the word ‘euthanasia,’ as it sounds so negative – I see it as assisted dying.”
Holly documenting her struggles on Instagram (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
And she hopes posts of her unfiltered experience on Instagram – made with the help of her boyfriend, part-time photographer and videographer Luke Amos, 29 – will help people to understand why she feels legalisation is so important.
Her full-time carer, Luke, who she met on an online dating website and finally met in person in January 2015, is helping her, despite not wanting to lose her, because he has fallen deeply in love with Holly and has “never had a single fight with her” even though times can be tough.
Holly says her family were crushed when she told them in October 2016 that she wished to decide when to die, but, after she explained the level of pain she lived with every day, they began to understand.
Holly stays in bed most of the time because of her condition (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
She said: “We can joke about it now. My mum says I’m going to write a letter and say exactly what I think of everyone before I go!
“The way that I want to go would give everyone closure, even though it’s incredibly hard.
“They love me so much that they are willing to let me make my own decision.”
Meanwhile, Holly will continue with her Instagram posts, hoping to convince people that assisted dying should be legal everywhere, as long as strict guidelines are obeyed.
Holly on the beach in Australia (PA Real Life/Luke Amos)
She continued: “I use my Instagram to show the truth of what it’s like, living with a condition like this.
“It is a means for me to vent online and document my disease as it changes.”
She added: “But I also want something positive to come out of my disability and, as I always tell Luke, the only thing stopping me from opting for assisted dying is the law, which is ridiculous.
“If my posts can change one person’s mind, then I’ll be happy.”
ATLANTA (AP) — As Donald Trump seeks a return to the White House, criminal charges are piling up for the people who tried to help him stay there in 2020 by promoting false theories of voter fraud.
At least five states won in 2020 by President Joe Biden have investigated efforts to install slates of electors who would cast Electoral College votes for Trump despite his loss. Those slates were to be used by Trump allies in the House and Senate to justify delaying or blocking the certification of the election during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, which was disrupted by pro-Trump rioters storming the Capitol.
Several of those charged or accused of involvement in election interference across the states are still involved in Republican politics today — including the lawyer overseeing “election integrity” for the Republican National Committee. And Trump, who faces federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia for his efforts to overturn Biden's win, frequently still claims the 2020 election was stolen, a falsehood echoed by many of his supporters.
Here's a look at the sprawling web of allegations, criminal charges and references to people in Trump’s orbit as unindicted co-conspirators.
The former president faces state charges in Georgia and federal charges in Washington over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and has been identified as an unindicted co-conspirator by investigators in Arizona and Michigan.
The Georgia charges came in a sprawling racketeering indictment in Fulton County in August that accused Trump and 18 others of participating in a wide-ranging scheme — that included the Republican elector effort — to illegally try to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
Trump is the only one charged in the federal indictment in Washington, but several close associates are recognizable as unindicted co-conspirators.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing his arguments that he should be immune from prosecution. He has clinched his third straight Republican nomination for president.
Racketeering and conspiracy are among the charges the former New York mayor and Trump-aligned attorney faces in Georgia. In Arizona, the charges against him have not yet been made public.
In Michigan, a state investigator has testified that Giuliani is among several high-profile unindicted co-conspirators in a case against Republicans who signed elector certificates falsely saying Trump had won the state.
He's also an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment in Washington, which cites comments he made at the “Stop the Steal” rally prior to the Capitol riot.
His spokesman, Ted Goodman, said in a statement Thursday that the “continued weaponization of our justice system should concern every American as it does permanent, irrevocable harm to the country.”
Bobb is a lawyer and conservative media personality charged in Arizona. She worked closely with Giuliani as he tried to persuade Arizona lawmakers to block the certification of the election results. She later raised money for a discredited audit of the election results in Maricopa County and covered the spectacle for One America News Network.
As lawyer for Trump, Bobb signed a letter stating that a “diligent search” for classified records had been conducted and that all such documents had been given back to the government before an FBI search revealed dozens of protected documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
She was recently tapped to oversee “election integrity” efforts at the Republican National Committee.
Asked about Bobb's role with the RNC, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung accused Democrats of “weaponization of the legal system.”
A longtime Trump aide, Epshteyn was charged in Arizona, where a grand jury accused him of assisting with the fake electors plan.
He's a lawyer who has been by Trump's side for some of the former president's own court appearances, including Thursday in New York.
Epshteyn was a principal surrogate in the 2016 presidential campaign, making frequent television appearances. He briefly served as a senior White House adviser before becoming an analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Trump's White House chief is charged in the sweeping Georgia racketeering indictment, but not in connection with the Republican elector meeting. Among other things, he participated in a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during which the then-president urged the elections official to help “find” the votes needed to overturn his narrow loss in the state.
Meadows' charges in Arizona are not publicly known. He was also identified by the Michigan state investigator as an unindicted co-conspirator.
His attorney, George Terwilliger, referred to Wednesday's indictment in Arizona as a “blatantly political and politicized accusation and will be contested and defeated.”
Meadows now works for the Conservative Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that describes his role as leading “strategic initiatives on Capitol Hill, with other partner organizations, and with grassroots activists across the country.”
A former dean of Chapman University’s law school in Southern California, Eastman wrote a memo arguing that Trump could remain in power if then-Vice President Mike Pence overturned the results of the electoral certification during a joint session of Congress using the slates of Republican electors from the battleground states.
The charges against him in Georgia include racketeering and conspiracy, while the Arizona charges have not been made public. He's also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal indictment, which quotes his remarks at the Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia and his lawyer Charles Burnham said he's innocent of the charges in Arizona.
Ellis was charged in the Georgia indictment after she appeared with Giuliani at a December 2020 hearing hosted by state Republican lawmakers at the Georgia Capitol during which false allegations of election fraud were made. She pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiding and abetting false statements and writings after reaching a deal with prosecutors. She wasn't charged in connection with the Republican electors efforts in Georgia.
It wasn't immediately clear whether she had a lawyer in Arizona who could comment on charges she faces there, which have not yet been made public.
A Trump campaign staffer and onetime White House aide, Roman was charged with several conspiracy counts related to the Republican elector meeting and the filing of the elector certificate in Georgia. He was also charged in Arizona.
Roman has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia. It wasn't immediately clear whether he had a lawyer in Arizona yet.
Chesebro, a lawyer, worked with Republicans in multiple swing states to coordinate and execute the Trump elector plan. He was charged with racketeering and several conspiracy counts in relation to that work in Georgia and in October reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents.
Chesebro is an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump's federal election indictment, which says he "assisted in devising and attempting to implement a plan to submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors to obstruct the certification proceeding.”
He was also named in the Wisconsin civil lawsuit, and when he turned over documents to settle that suit he didn't admit liability but promised never to participate in similar efforts.
A lawyer and unflinching Trump ally, Powell was charged with racketeering and conspiracy charges in Georgia but was not implicated in the elector scheme. The Fulton County indictment accused her of participating in an unauthorized breach of elections equipment in a rural Georgia county elections office. She pleaded guilty in October to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties after reaching a deal with prosecutors.
She's an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal election interference case, where prosecutors say she filed a lawsuit in Georgia that amplified false or unsupported claims of election fraud.
Clark was a U.S. Justice Department official who championed Trump’s false claims of election fraud. He was charged in Georgia with racketeering and criminal attempt to commit false statements and writings after he presented colleagues with a draft letter pushing Georgia officials to convene a special legislative session on the election results.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Georgia.
He was also one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the federal election indictment against Trump.
In addition to Arizona, criminal charges have been filed against Republicans who presented themselves as electors in Michigan, Georgia and Nevada. Wisconsin Republicans who signed elector certificates reached a settlement in a civil lawsuit, admitting their actions were part of an effort to overturn Biden’s victory. No charges have been filed in Pennsylvania or New Mexico, with the attorney general in the latter saying there’s no avenue for prosecution under state law.
Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
FILE - Mark Meadows speaks with reporters at the White House, Oct. 21, 2020, in Washington. Meadows, chief of staff for former President Donald Trump, was among those indicted Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in an Arizona election interference case. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
FILE - Former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani speaks during a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Washington, Dec. 15, 2023. Guiliani, a lawyer for former President Donald Trump, was among those indicted Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in an Arizona election interference case.(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Former President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media at Manhattan criminal court in New York, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)
