A 14-year-old girl has decided to end her life after attending a special prom.
Jerika Bolen, from Wisconsin, United States, will end her battle with incurable spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) on her own terms next month.
But before that she intends to party at a dance this Friday and everyone is invited.
‘I don’t have many friends. I’m not like, because I couldn’t get out really and do many things because I was in so much pain, and this prom is, well — we call it my last dance,’ she told NBC.
Jerika has been confined to a wheelchair for most of her life and can only move her hands and her face as SMA doesn’t allow her to use the majority of her muscles.
She added: ‘I need to do what’s best for me. It was a really hard decision to make.
‘When pain is too much, it’s too much.’
Her mum Jen Bolen said she thought her daughter had survived longer than expected because she was trying to protect her.
Jerika will take off her ventilator in August, which will lead to her death.
She has set up a GoFundMe page to help her with costs for the celebration this week at Appleton’s Grand Meridian.