A woman school teacher from France who is badly disfigured by facial tumours which was caused by a rare & begged to Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, to allow her to die by euthanasia. Chantal Sebire, school teacher who is 52 years old, appealed for the right to end the “atrocious” suffering inflicted on her by the disease which has rendered her face unrecognisable because of growing tumours.

She said in Plombieres-les-Dijon in central of France, asking Mr Sarkozy to allow her a dignified death, “An animal would not be allowed to endure what I have to endure”. Euthanasia is illegal in France, unlike in come other European countries such as the Netherlands & Belgium. Ms Sebire said that she suffered from a very rare disease called esthesioneuroblastoma, which
attacks the nasal cavity.

Chantal Sebire said, “In 2000, I lost my sense of smell & taste, & then the tumour evolved & ate into my jaws, before attacking the eye socket. I lost my sight in October last year”. The disease caused “atrocious bouts of pain that can last up to four hours at a time. It had left her blind & had robbed her of almost all other senses, leaving her in terrible pain.

Appealed to be allowed to die, Sebire said that only 200 cases of the disease had been reported globally in the last 20 years.