His wife, Susan, who had watched him go from crutches to an electric wheelchair, learned the hard way that palliative care was not always the answer.

“Palliative care isn’t enough, there are people like Colin (for whom) palliative care will never be enough,” Mrs Wragg said. “People are suffering terribly and no amount of medical intervention will help.”

Mrs Wragg first met her future husband in 2004 when he was volunteering at a church Christmas lunch. The couple wed in 2010, but the agony of his existence was made plain in 2012.

In December 2007, the man who cooked at the opening of the Sydney Opera House tried to end his life with enough Oxycontin to kill a bull elephant.

“He had 60 tablets and he did not die,” Mrs Wragg said. “His digestive system was so bad it didn’t kill him, he had so many ulcers in his bowel he did not absorb the drugs.”

But two years ago this month, Mr Wragg’s breaking point arrived. He told his wife three weeks before his death he was contemplating suicide.

“I said ‘have you got a plan?’ and he said ‘yes’,” Mrs Wragg said. “From that time, from when he said ‘yes’ I started mourning his death.”

At 9.40pm on September 26, 2015 – a Saturday night – Mr Wragg acted.

“Colin and I were by ourselves (at home) and he came into the bedroom and he just said ‘I’ve taken the tablets’ and he got into bed and I held his hand and comforted him and told him I loved him,” Mrs Wragg said. “Within 20 minutes he was unconscious but it took three hours for that poor tortured body to die and it was horrible.”

With tears flowing, Mrs Wragg told of the frustration of her beloved not being able to act legally to end his pain.

“It took three hours for him to die and it was horrible, if he was under medical supervision it would have taken minutes or seconds and it would have been pain-free,” she said.

Thirty minutes after phoning the ambulance service to report the death, Mrs Wragg had police in her living room.

“They told me I would probably go to jail and I looked at them and asked if they wanted to send me to jail for comforting my husband while he was dying.”

Now Mrs Wragg is lobbying for legalised euthanasia, saying those in pain should not have to attempt suicide and risk unforeseen damage.

“Colin didn’t want to be alone, he asked me to stay, that’s all he wanted and I nearly got put in jail for it,” Mrs Wragg said. “It’s just inhumane, it’s really medical torture.”