POLICE have arrested two women on suspicion of assisting or encouraging suicide, following the death of a 60-year-old woman from Cardigan.

Sharon Johnston, who was left severely disabled following a fall three years ago, was reported missing from her home, Dyfed-Powys Police confirmed.

A prominent advocate of assisted dying, it is understood that she travelled to Switzerland, with the intention of asking doctors to help end her life.

Police said a 29-year-old woman from the London area and a 69-year-old woman from Cardiff were arrested after returning to Heathrow Airport.

Both are reported to have been released pending further investigation.

Swiss law enables doctors to assist certain patients to die, although the process remains illegal in the UK.

Ms Johnston had spoken of her intention to travel to Switzerland to end her life on the BBC Wales Investigates programme last October.

The injuries sustained in a fall at her home left her with some movement in one hand, allowing her to operate her specially adapted wheelchair.

"I go out in the town and I can get about. It's not that like I'm trapped in bed or bedridden. But I don't want the care," she told the BBC.