A DORSET woman is campaigning to keep motor neurone disease sufferer Diane Pretty alive.

Wheelchair user Alison Davis was due to attend Wednesday's hearing in the House of Lords.

She fears the Law Lords will overturn the High Court's decision to prevent Mrs Pretty's husband from helping her to die.

Mrs Davis will attempt to speak to lawyers to put her case.

And should the ruling go in Mrs Pretty's favour, she will try to enlist the help of MP Robert Walter.

"I am terrified that Diane Pretty will win her appeal because it will encourage society to think people like me are better off dead," she said.

Alison, 46, was born with spina bifida and also suffers from brittle bone disease and lung disease emphysema.

She suffers severe, sometimes uncontrollable pain but she is adamant that her life is worth living.

"These conditions make me the sort of person many would consider better off dead and a suitable candidate for assisted suicide," said Alison who lives in Milborne St Andrew. "Advocates say that it's a matter of individual choice and that I need have no fear.

"The problem with this is that some years ago I did want to die."

Several suicide attempts failed but Alison believes she would now be dead had voluntary euthanasia then been legal.

"I am only alive now because my friends refused to go along with my view that my life had no value.

"Over time they enabled me to re-establish a sense of my own inherent dignity and worth.

"If you are surrounded by people who agree you would be better off dead you end up believing it."

A medical ethics lecturer who travels extensively, Alison hit her low point in 1985 when her ten-year marriage foundered. Her profound wish to die continued over ten years.

Colin Harte who has cared for her for 12 years said: "In 1995 Alison and I went to India and visited a centre for disabled children.

"The night after we left Alison told me that now, for the first time in ten years, she felt she wanted to live.

"The children had made a profound impact on her and she wanted to do something for them."

Alison set up a charity now called Enable (Working in India) to support the home.

"I realised what a waste it is to want to die, even when your life is limited," said Alison.

For more information about Enable call 01258 837546.