Harrogate’s MP has opened up in the House of Commons about his mum’s health in an emotional speech in favour of assisted dying.

Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, was speaking in Parliament during the debate on the Assisted Dying Bill, drawing on two deaths in his own family's life and his mum’s own health fears to make the case for change.

Mr Gordon told MPs about his mum's uncle, who was terminally ill and cared for by his mum in his final months.

It was his mum who found him.

Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, spoke in Parliament during the debate on the Assisted Dying Bill, drawing on two deaths in his own family's life and his mum’s own health fears. (Picture contributed)

placeholder image — Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, spoke in Parliament during the debate on the Assisted Dying Bill, drawing on two deaths in his own family's life and his mum’s own health fears. (Picture contributed)

He was on the floor of his home, she told her son - as if he had been trying to reach the door on the other side of the room, where his shotgun hung.

He also shared the story of a former neighbour, a pig farmer, who was suffering in great pain from a terminal illness.

One summer's day, Tom Gordon heard a loud bang from across the road. He ran over, and along with his gran, found him dead.

"I will never forget that,” said Harrogate’s MP.

Campaigners from Dignity in Dying make their point during a previous bid to pass the Assisted Dying Bill. (Picture contributed)

Mr Gordon said he didn't know whether either man would have chosen an assisted death, had the option existed - but that they deserved better than what happened to them.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would have allowed adults with fewer than six months to live to apply to be given help to end their own life, subject to certain safeguards.

A similar bill in the last parliamentary session was supported by MPs before stalling in the House of Lords.

But, his time, the House of Commons voted narrowly 286 to 270 against the proposed legislation.

The Harrogate MP also spoke about his mum, who had breast cancer and is now in remission.

With two separate tumours in her own history, she lives with the fear that it could return.

Mr Gordon described the comfort she and her friends in her cancer support group feel at the idea of having control and choice at the end of life.

He recalled a conversation with her from his mid-20s.

"I had to face the conversation with my mum about what would happen to my younger sister, who was only five or six at the time, if my mum – a single parent – didn't survive.

"That is not a conversation I will ever forget and it's one of the things that motivates me to speak on this issue as often, and as prominently, as I do."

The Lib Dem MP explained that during his work on the Bill Committee when the legislation had previously passed through Parliament, he would call his mum for guidance.

"For my mum, she's made clear that if her breast cancer were to return, she wouldn't want to go through the ordeal and trauma of surgery and chemotherapy again,” said Mr Gordon.

“She already lives with lasting nerve damage and a reduced quality of life as a result of the cancer she's already had."

The renewed Assisted Dying bill, introduced by Labour MP Lauren Edwards, would have applied to adults in England and Wales expected to have less than six months to live.

The decision from MPs last Friday rules out the prospect of changes to the law in the short term.