Death With Dignity advocate Brittany Maynard completed the final item on her bucket list last week.
The terminally ill brain cancer patient travelled to the Grand Canyon with her mother, step-father, and husband, thanks to donations from people across the country.
Maynard wrote about the trip on her blog, and shared smiling photos with her family.
"This week, my family and I travelled to the Grand Canyon, thanks to the kindness of Americans around the country who came forward to make my 'bucket list' dream come true," she said. "The Canyon was breathtakingly beautiful, and I was able to enjoy my time with the two things I love most: my family and nature."
Maynard, 29, has publicised her plan to end her life on Nov. 1, and is devoting her final days to pushing Death With Dignity legislation. Although her trip to the Grand Canyon was remarkable, it provided but a brief reprieve from the reality of her condition.
"Sadly, it is impossible to forget my cancer," she wrote. "Severe headaches and neck pain are never far away, and unfortunately the next morning I had my worst seizure thus far. My speech was paralyzed for quite a while after I regained consciousness, and the feeling of fatigue continued for the rest of the day."
A 30-year-old seminarian with terminal brain cancer wrote an open letter to Maynard last week, urging her to turn to Jesus for comfort and reject assisted suicide.
"There have been times over the past six years that I wanted the cancer to grow and take my life swiftly so that it would all be over," Philip G. Johnson wrote. "Other times, I have sought forms of escape through sin and denial just to take my mind off of the suffering and sadness, even if only for a few moments.
"I learned that the suffering and heartache that is part of the human condition does not have to be wasted and cut short out of fear or seeking control in a seemingly uncontrollable situation. Perhaps this is the most important miracle that God intends for me to experience."
