• Brittany Maynard sparked a national debate about the “right to die with dignity” movement when she took her own life while dying of terminal cancer
• Ten years later, his widow, Dan Diaz, tells PEOPLE about Maynard’s impact on the world and how he continues to defend Maynard’s way
• “I miss her every day,” she says

It’s been 10 years since Dan Diaz’s wife. Brittany MaynardHe took his life after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, sparking a national debate. “Right to die with dignity” movement.

This decade, 53-year-old Diaz continues to work together — looking back now, he seems surprised at how quickly time passed.

“How did 10 years pass so quickly?” he tells PEOPLE in an interview from the San Francisco Bay Area. “I mean, it’s just Moments from the lives we spent together. “This is the house that Brittany and I got together, or our wedding day, and I think she was like, ‘No, this just happened,’ I remember it so vividly.”

Maynard died on November 1, 2014, at the age of 29, after sharing his story with the world: He was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, and chose not to continue treatment because he believed it would reduce his quality of life. survive the remaining months.

“(My cancer) is going to kill me, and that’s a terrible way to die. So being able to die with my family, having control of my own mind that I would stand to lose — it’s less scary to go with dignity,” Maynard told PEOPLE at the time.

But he and Diaz first had to move from their home in the Bay Area to Oregon, one of the few states that provides legal access to medically assisted suicide in certain cases.

Diaz says she can still easily recall her late husband’s numerous doctor’s appointments and the day he had brain surgery, “managing to deal with the chaos that cancer brought to your world.”

And he also chooses to remember his victories, small and large, on the legislative front; helping others achieve their own “autonomy” due to terminal illness.

“We passed California a year after Brittany’s death,” Diaz says, referring to the state’s End of Life Option Act. “Governor. Jerry Brown signed our law into law in California in October 2015. “We then introduced our bill and it became law in Colorado, then in D.C. and New Jersey, and in Maine and New Mexico, Hawaii.”

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“When I think about it, obviously the time and energy and effort that not only has been put in by me, but by Compassion and Choices (with whom the Colorado nonprofit Diaz also works) and all the volunteers who have come forward and all the terminally ill patients, I’ve said, ‘Yes, of course 10 It’s been a year,’” Diaz says, “I mean, look at all the things we’ve worked on and accomplished.”

Even when Diaz encountered people living in states where the legislation would likely never pass, he made a connection through Maynard.

“A Texas guy remembers Brittany’s story and says, ‘Oh my God, I support this so much, what do you think? ‘When can we get past this in Texas?’ And I said, ‘Dude, this isn’t happening.’ I’m sorry, but it’s not going to happen,’ says Diaz.

He continues by reminding the man of his reality; It’s not all that different from the reality he and Maynard faced in 2014.

“’I’m going to have to move to Oregon or California or another state,’ he says. I said, ‘Yeah, that’s probably your reality.’ And he’s very upset about it,” says Diaz.

Medically assisted death for terminally ill patients remains controversial; critics argue that it can be abused, but research shows that it too Supported by a majority of Americans.

Since Maynard died, his widow and other advocates have worked to expand access to what they call end-of-life options: California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. now everyone allows it under certain conditions.

Ten years later, Diaz is moving on.

“I miss him every day and I continue to do what I do because it’s a promise I made to him and it means a lot to me,” he says.

“They say that when you are gone, everything you have done for yourself is gone, too. “But what you do for others will live on in your legacy,” he says. “And that’s exactly what Brittany’s legacy is.”