Lesley Martin's brother dies after accident

Euthanasia campaigner Lesley Martin has said goodbye to her most loyal supporter, her only brother.

Michael Charles Martin, 43, died after he was critically injured in a collision between his truck and a tanker in Waikato on April 29. The other driver, Edwin Charles Samuelson, 56, of Te Kuiti, died at the scene.

Mr Martin was taken off life support the day after the accident but kept alive on a ventilator at Waikato Hospital long enough for family members and close friends to say goodbye.

"I told him how much I loved and appreciated him and would miss him every day for the rest of my life," said Ms Martin, a former registered nurse. "Mike was my loyal, only brother and he is irreplaceable."

For Ms Martin - who served nine months of a 15-month sentence for in 1999 giving her terminally ill mother an overdose of morphine, then suffocating her with a pillow - it was yet another devastating blow in six years of tragedy and heartache.

Ms Martin wrote a book about her decision to help end her mother's suffering, To Die Like A Dog. Its publication led to her arrest and conviction. She is now writing her second book, To Cry in Five, an account of the five years from her mother's death to when she walked free from prison.

She said though some saw her as a cold-blooded killer, her brother was loyal to the end.

Mr Martin, a former police constable, was a prosecution witness in the High Court trial but described his sister's care of their dying mother as "the gutsiest thing I ever saw".

Ms Martin said there was no other choice but to switch off her brother's life support. Specialists told her from the start that he would die.

Among family members gathered at his bedside was his estranged sister, Louise, a fierce critic of Ms Martin's decision to end her mother's life. "Our relationship is irretrievable," said Ms Martin of Louise. "We did the right thing by Louise by giving her the opportunity to be there."

Michael's death capped a traumatic couple of weeks for the family. Two weeks before the accident, Ms Martin's eldest son, Matthew, 21, was seriously injured in a car crash and spent time in intensive care.

"He's good now. He had surgery and some pretty shocking internal injuries."

- HERALD ON SUNDAY