A DISABLED Dorset woman, who has attempted suicide several times, is in London today protesting against motor neurone victim Diane Pretty's appeal to the House of Lords for the right to die.

Spina bifida sufferer Alison Davis, 46, from Milborne St Andrew, near Dorchester, says that despite the fact that she is in constant pain, she is against legalising euthanasia.

Diane Pretty, a 42-year-old mother from Bedfordshire, is challenging the High Court's decision that her husband Brian should not be immune from prosecution if he helps her die.

But Mrs Davis, who is confined to a wheelchair, believes it is wrong to choose death over life.

And she has found a new reason to keep going by setting up a charity for disabled children in India.

She said today: "Death isn't the solution to desperation.

"Legalising euthanasia is the hallmark of a society that has given up on its most vulnerable members, but instead believes that people like us are better off dead.

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

"I am only alive now because my friends refused to go along with my view that my life had no value. They enabled me to re-establish a sense of my own inherent dignity and worth.

"Diane Pretty, on the other hand, is surrounded by supporters who agree that her life is 'undignified' and 'degrading' and believe that death is the compassionate answer to human suffering.

"I believe that what suffering people need is help to live with dignity and eventually to die peacefully and naturally. If she wins her case, the chances of this happening would have receded rather than being advanced."

Ms Davis, who is paralysed below the waist and also suffers from emphysema and osteoporosis, is in London with her full-time carer Colin Harte, hoping to talk to lawyers in the case about her views.

She tried to kill herself several times between 1985 and 1990, because her husband of ten years left her, and she was in great pain from her conditions. She says that had euthanasia been legal, she would have applied for it.

It took her a long time to change her mind, but a pivotal moment came when she and Mr Harte went to visit a centre for disabled children in India in 1995.

Mr Harte said: "The night after we left the centre, Alison told me that for the first time in ten years, she felt she wanted to live. When we returned to England, Alison set up a charity to support these children.

"In January, we opened a new centre for disabled children, which is called The Alison Davis Millennium Home for Disabled Children."

Alison Davis is raising money to build a surgical unit at the home.

If you would like to support the charity contact: Enable (Working in India), 35 Stileham Bank, Milborne St Andrew, Dorset, DT11 0LE.