Woman, 26, who is ending life with assisted dying explains what’s on her bucket list

Warning: This article contains discussion of health issues and assisted dying which some readers may find distressing.

A terminally ill woman who is seeking assisted dying has put together a 'f**k it list' of things she wants to do before her life comes to an end.

Since the age of 12, Annaliese 'Annie' Holland has spent her life with a serious illness, though it would be another six years before she was diagnosed with Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy (AAG), an autoimmune disease that attacks the body's autonomic nervous system.

When she was 18 and at last had a name to give her pain, the Australian woman's organs were failing and she required constant pain medication.

Having turned 26 in January, a GoFundMe says that was 'likely her last birthday' as the woman has applied for voluntary assisted dying, meaning she has decided to end her own life.

"I look in the mirror and I don’t see me anymore," she told A Current Affair. "I see a frail body."

Before she goes she has been ticking entries off her 'f**k it list' and she opened up about what she'd put on there.

What is on Annie's 'F**k It' list?

Some of the things she's achieved on the list include renting her own apartment, seeing the look on her dad's face as she tried on a wedding dress, watching a baby be born and flying in a helicopter.

Annie explained why she'd wanted to watch a baby being born, saying: "Not being able to have children and never being able to feel that motherly soul, I thought that maybe if I witnessed it and it would kind of help that little hole in my heart."

As for her views after she'd seen childbirth happening, she said: "Wow. I would never look at a vagina the same again.

"The body is incredible. It was the most amazing moment of my life. So beautiful and now I'm an auntie, so I'm auntie Annie to little Indiana."

'I remember feeling more scared to survive than I was to die'

The news show helped her tick off another entry on the list, getting Annie the chance to fly in a helicopter, with her joking after she returned to the ground that she wanted to find a 'pilot husband'.

Go Gentle Australia explained that Annie hasn't eaten a proper meal for a decade and is fed directly into her bloodstream via a total parenteral nutrition (TPN).

There is only one viable vein left in her chest to feed through and if it gets blocked she will 'basically starve to death' as she won't be able to get food or hydration.

She has had sepsis 25 times and it was during one of those that she realised she was 'feeling more scared to survive than I was to die'.

Back in 2023 she accompanied Lily Thai, another woman with AAG, on her path to voluntary assisted dying, and Lily had told her 'you'll know when you know'.

Annie didn't understand it at the time but she does now, saying her decision meant she was able to choose 'when and how' she died given that she was 'going to die anyway', having been told at age 22 her condition was terminal.

The GoFundMe is raising money to afford a procedure that will remove Annie's teeth, with them being damaged from long-term steroid use, and get her a full set of dentures.

Money will also pay for her medication and the cost of travel to her appointments, as well as her bills and treatments that help reduce her pain.

It has almost reached its goal, you can help it here.