WHILE I'm sure the recent headline-grabbing death of EastEnders matriarch Peggy Mitchell was sensitively handled, there was something depressingly predictable about the character taking her own life.

Isn't it about time TV dramas focused less on suicide as a conclusion to cancer storylines, and more on the support offered by palliative care?

Millions watched last week as EastEnders' Peggy, played by the excellent Barbara Windsor, took a pills overdose to end her suffering. The storyline had echoes of the 2014 Coronation Street scenes in which terminally ill Hayley Cropper took her own life. Unable to face the prospect of deteriorating further, the much-loved character ended her life with a lethal cocktail of drugs.

Both soaps were rightly applauded for following through harrowing storylines that saw cancer take its grip, physically and emotionally, and the aftermath of Hayley's death in particular explored the right-to-die debate, with her husband Roy struggling to deal with her decision.

But I think producers and scriptwriters should recognise that for many people with a terminal illnesses, death is a natural end to life and something they don't wish to bring about themselves. Hospice care and palliative care at home enables patients to spend their final weeks with as much dignity, comfort and support as possible.

A significant part of palliative care involves discussion about dying, with a focuses on affirming life and accepting death as a normal part of the life cycle.

Highlighting this aspect of the dying process in soaps, which enter millions of living-rooms nightly, would make death less of a taboo subject - or something to be sensationalised with the TV awards season in mind.

Helping to nurse my dad through the final week of his life was a painful, surreal, at times harrowing process, but at the same time it was strangely peaceful, and that was thanks to Bradford's Marie Curie hospice where he spent the last 24 hours of his life.

He had first stayed at the hospice a few weeks earlier, after a traumatic time in hospital when his cancer spread to his brain, and the difference in care seemed poles apart. Surrounded by hospice staff, he was calm and at peace, even when he learned he had just a short time to live. When he made the decision to spend those weeks at home, the hospice went to great lengths to secure the right homecare package, and ensured he could attend the day therapy unit.

A peaceful death rarely, if ever, appears in a soap storyline. I think we owe it to our marvellous hospices and their staff to highlight the holistic care and support they offer, extending quality of life to the end of life.