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Tina Turner considered assisted suicide before husband donated his kidney to her

The singer's kidneys were failing

Photo: KIKA/WENN.com

Tina Turner considered assisted suicide before her husband Erwin Bach offered to donate his kidney to her.

The 78-year-old has opened up about her health struggles in her new book My Love Story, and revealed that she underwent a secret kidney transplant last year – which saved her life.

After failing to treat her high blood pressure, Tina’s kidneys were at just 20% of their normal function last year, and she was urged to start dialysis.

In an excerpt from her book, published by the Daily Mail, she wrote: “It wasn’t my idea of life. But the toxins in my body had started taking over. I couldn’t eat. I was surviving, but not living.”

“I began to think about death. If my kidneys were going, and it was time for me to die, I could accept that. It was OK. When it’s time, it’s really time. I didn’t mind the thought of dying, but I was concerned about how I would go.”

Tina started to consider assisted suicide, and signed up to be a member of Exit, an assisted dying organisation.

However, the singer was then given “the gift of life itself” when her husband, who she married in 2013, offered her one of his kidneys.

The couple underwent the transplant on 7 April 2017, and  now she is “revelling in the sheer joy of being alive”.

Tina, who divorced Ike Turner in 1978, started dating Erwin in 1986. After 27 years together, the pair married in a civil ceremony in Switzerland in 2013, where they continue to live.

My Love Story by Tina Turner is set to be published on October 18. 

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