Just hours before her passing, a revelation stunned many of Trish Lightwood’s friends. On August 14, Trish, a mother of two, shared on Facebook her travel to the Pegasos assisted-dying facility in Switzerland.

‘Goodbye my friends,’ she wrote. ‘I will suffer no more. Today I will end my life.’

In her message, the former educator was clear about her reason for the journey: overwhelming, relentless chronic pain caused by an antibiotic class known as fluoroquinolones.

At 59, Trish expressed: ‘I was once joyful and fit until an antibiotic inflicted irreversible harm on me, leaving me alive but unable to live. I’m perpetually in agony. I cannot operate.’

She continued: ‘I’ve consulted with seven general practitioners, three top professors, three pain experts, one neurologist, three psychiatrists, and a psychologist. There is no remedy for my condition. The medical community is aware of this.

‘You can only protect yourself from this by knowing the risks.’

Four hours after sharing the post, Trish was gone.

Fluoroquinolones rank among the most frequently dispensed antibiotics in the UK, used to combat a variety of potentially severe infections, like those in the bladder and lungs.

For the overwhelming majority, medications like ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, and moxifloxacin are considered safe and effective. However, growing studies indicate a rare few – approximately one in every 10,000 – may experience severe, enduring side effects.

These can include tendon and joint pain, muscle weakness, burning or tingling sensations, dizziness and brain fog.

Some patients also report serious psychiatric problems, including suicidal thoughts.

Since 1990, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has linked more than 10,000 adverse reactions and at least 100 deaths to ciprofloxacin alone. In response to mounting concerns, the regulator last year issued fresh guidance to NHS doctors, warning fluoroquinolones should be prescribed only when other, commonly recommended antibiotics are unsuitable.

Despite this, NHS figures show more than 20,000 fluoroquinolone prescriptions are still handed out every month in England.

Trish, from Liverpool, was first given the fluoroquinolone antibiotic ofloxacin in September 2023. Until then, she had never had any health problems.

Her daughter Jen, 23, a care worker, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘She loved exercising and followed a healthy diet. She was a very happy person as well.’

But Jen claims everything changed after her mum underwent a hysteroscopy – a minor procedure using a camera to inspect the uterus for signs of disease. The test showed no signs of illness and Trish suffered no complications. But as a precaution against infection – a relatively common risk after the procedure – her doctor prescribed a nine-day course of the fluoroquinolone ofloxacin. Within days, Jen says, her mother began experiencing the side effects from which she would never recover.

The most debilitating was excruciating pain in her joints and tendons, leaving her unable to walk or even lift a glass of water without agony. She also developed severe insomnia. As the months passed and the symptoms persisted, Trish’s family – including son Sean, 21, and husband Mark, 59 – were forced to adapt to her constant pain. When she needed to leave the house, they would take her in a wheelchair.

‘If there were any bumps in the path, she could really feel it through her body,’ says Jen. ‘Any jolts she’d feel in her tendons. She would describe it as a constant pulling sensation. And the fact that she couldn’t sleep made everything worse because she couldn’t rest her body.’

As Trish recounted in her Facebook post, she visited countless medical professionals in an effort to find relief. Various scans and blood tests were performed, including an MRI that revealed inflammation on Trish’s brain.

Two specialists eventually diagnosed Trish with ‘fluoroquinolone- associated disability’ – a catch-all term for the cluster of severe side effects linked to the antibiotics. But they told her there was no effective treatment. Experts still do not know exactly what causes the condition. One theory is that the drugs damage mitochondria – the tiny powerhouses inside cells that generate energy.

The only guidance Trish was given was that, in about eight out of ten patients, symptoms begin to fade after roughly nine months.

But when the nine-month mark came and went, Jen says her mother began to despair.

‘She said, “I am probably going to be stuck like this forever, I don’t want to be like this”,’ recalls Jen.

Around Christmas last year, Trish considered taking her own life but, at the last minute, reconsidered. Instead, soon after, she discussed with her family her wish to travel to Switzerland where she could legally access assisted dying. Trish had picked out the clinic Pegasos because she had read online that other fluoroquinolone-associated disability sufferers had ended their lives there. Jen says: ‘She knew what she wanted to do. Even when we were there in Switzerland, I said to her multiple times we could just go home. But she was so determined to do it.’

On the day, a nurse prepared an intravenous drip containing Nembutal – a painless, fast-acting lethal drug – and inserted it into Trish’s arm. Ordinarily, patients turn a small wheel to release the infusion, but Trish’s severe joint pain meant she could not do this. So the clinic set up a cord for her to pull.

When the moment came, Jen says, her mother was calm. ‘I think it was very quick,’ she recalls. ‘The last thing she said to me was, “I’m going to sleep now”.’

Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, pharmacogenetics expert at the University of Liverpool, says: ‘If you are being prescribed a fluoroquinolone antibiotic, ask your prescriber whether an antibiotic is really essential. And if it is, ask are there any other antibiotics that could be used instead.’

Jen believes fluoroquinolones should carry a prominent health warning. She says: ‘This drug should be used as a last resort for life-threatening conditions.’

● Trish Lightwood’s family have started a petition calling for strict rules on the prescription of fluoroquinolone antibiotics, which can be signed at: change.org/p/regulate-fluoroquinolone-antibiotic-use

● For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org