By Ewen McRae
Belinda Teh is putting one foot in front of the other as she strives for law changes in her home state.
The 27-year-old is currently walking from Melbourne to Perth to raise awareness for assisted dying legislation in Western Australia.
Ms Teh, who passed through Melton on day one of the walk, said watching her mother die from breast cancer in 2016 had been the catalyst for her campaign.
“You don’t really realise what the law means until it affects someone you love – and for me that person was my mum,” she said.
“My mum had terminal breast cancer, made two requests for assisted dying, but couldn’t get what she wanted and as a result she died in terrible pain.
“So I’m trying to draw some attention to the laws that are about to be debated in WA and hopefully get the law that my mum never had.”
Ms Teh will spend two months on the 4500-kiloemtre trek, ending in Perth on the day the bill will be introduced into Parliament.
Victoria passed assisted dying legislation in 2017.
“I remember sitting in front of my computer when the Victorian bill passed and wondering why can’t we have that here,” Ms Teh said.
“There’s nothing that could have been done for my mum, so this is almost making up for all the things I couldn’t do for her, but also trying to create positive change.”
