From Rage to Resolve - The Maggi Savage Story
From Rage to Resolve: Maggi Savage’s Story
Maggi Savage is angry. In April, her husband and partner of forty-four years, Neil, died from organ failure, the inevitable conclusion to a terminal dread disease, after months of unbearable suffering - but he was not ready to go.
For five long years, cancer stripped away the life they’d built together. Yet what broke her most, she says, was not the illness itself but the way it was medically managed. She believes Neil’s care offered false hope when the truth was clear, and then, when nothing more could be done, the medical professional driving his care refused to connect the family to supportive resources like palliative care or offer any support either.
“I was furious,” she says quietly. “Not just because of the pain Neil endured, but because of the callous way that both of us were treated.”
In the months after Neil’s death, Maggi considered all possible courses of action. “I wanted someone to acknowledge the pain and suffering of both Neil and our family,” she admits. But one sleepless night, she realised she had another choice: to channel her grief and rage into something that could help others. That moment led her to doing research, and ultimately to DignitySA.
Neil was, in Maggi’s words, quite simply “astonishing,”. He was undoubtedly a gifted human being and natural leader, a man of rare intellect and irrepressible humour. With Master’s degrees in both Mathematics and Music, he built a successful pension fund administration business and that he led with compassion and integrity. Yet all that brilliance and all their resources, nothing could not spare him from the agonising mental and physical decline, and the dreadful feelings of helplessness that come with a terminal illness.
“There were times when the pain was so intense that no medication could suppress it,” Maggi recalls. “We thought about the Switzerland option. But by then, he was too weak to travel.” “I keep thinking,” Maggi shares, “that if he suffered so much, despite the resources to which we had access, what must it be like for others suffering in similar circumstances here in South Africa, especially?”
Thankfully they met, through a friend and not through any medical advisor, a gentle and wise palliative care practitioner, who helped them face the hard reality of what was coming two weeks before he died. For the first time, Maggi says, they felt seen. “This doctor didn’t promise miracles. She gave us honesty, comfort, and peace. And when Neil finally slipped away, it was calm. He was surrounded by love.”
In the months since, Maggi has faced the lonely, grinding aftermath of loss, the “administration of death,” as she calls it. “It’s astounding how complicated everything becomes, the bills, the legal documents, the paperwork. I worked with Neil in our business, and I know it does not need to be so complicated. I really want to share what I am learning and help others, widows like me who are grappling with a deceased estate, grief, and rage all at the same time.”
Instead of withdrawing into grief, Maggi has chosen to act. In Neil’s honour, she made a significant donation to DignitySA’s legal fund, a gesture of hope for a more compassionate future.
“I want something good to come from what we experienced,” she says. “No one should have to suffer like Neil did. No one.”
Maggi’s story is one of heartbreak transformed into purpose, a reminder that courage can emerge from devastation. Her gift will help advance DignitySA’s fight for the right to a dignified death, for Neil, for herself, and for every South African who still has no choice.
We thank Maggi and the Savage family, not only for their generosity, but also for showing us that love, even in grief, can become an act of seeking justice for those who suffer needlessly.
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