Margaret had not sought medical help for her cancer

The 62-year-old couple had found love late in life. She was in constant pain with stomach cancer when they made their suicide pact.

A former hospice nurse for the dying, she had begged her husband to end her own suffering.

He had cared for her round the clock and could not bear to live without her.

It's the last loving thing you can do for me Margaret Blackburn Suicide pact husband spared jail

The court heard how she said goodbye to her two grown-up sons - from a previous marriage.

She then, in her husband's words, begged him: "You have got to do something.

"You have got to cut my wrists and then do yours and we will meet each other on the other side." He replied: "I can't."

But she insisted: "You have got to. I can't go to hospital.

"It's the last loving thing - it's the last loving thing you can do for me."

She asked him to make sure she was dead first so she did not survive and wake up without him there.

'Ultimate sacrifice

Following a night when she was in pain, he put a blanket over her as she lay on the living room sofa and a flannel on her face, so she did not have to watch.

He cut her wrists and, holding her in his arms, told her: "I am here, you know."

Within 20 minutes she had died.

The court heard he took away the flannel and combed her hair as she would have wanted.

He cut his own wrists but his blood congealed and he rang police when he did not die.

His defence counsel, Peter Binder, said: "He was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to be with her.