She was one of the world's most brilliant classical musicians when multiple sclerosis cruelly struck.
Jacqueline du Pre, doyenne of The Proms, died in wheelchair-bound torment in 1987 aged just 42.
But now extraordinary claims have emerged about the cellist's death in a book by British actress Miriam Margolyes.
She recounts a startling confession from a London therapist who claimed she had helped the acclaimed musician with an assisted suicide.
Cellist Jacqueline du Pre (pictured) died in wheelchair-bound torment in 1987 aged just 42, with her cause of death being recorded as bronchopneumonia and multiple sclerosis'
Miss du Pre allegedly begged for a mercy killing when the debilitating disease ravaged her body.
Last night Miss du Pre's family and friends said the claims allegedly made by the therapist, who died in 1997, could not be true.
One said Miss du Pre could barely move or speak and would have been unable to ask anyone to 'put her out of her misery'.
In her prime, the Oxford-born musician's exuberant performances electrified the nation.
Playing a 1673 Stradivarius, she was regarded as one of the finest cellists the world had ever seen.
She married pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, who is now music director of the Berlin State Opera.
But now extraordinary claims have emerged about the cellist's death in a book by British actress Miriam Margolyes (pictured in July 2009)
But in 1971, aged 26, she began to lose feeling in her fingers, before her genius was completely snuffed out by the vile disease.
Now an astonishing allegation has surfaced that she had begged for euthanasia and asked therapist Margaret Branch to give her a lethal injection. The therapist is said to have later confessed to another client, Miss Margolyes.
In her memoir, serialised in the Daily Mail today, the actress, who played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter movies, said: 'She believed that it was the highest mark of love for Jacqueline that she could show, to release her from the horrors of her illness.'
