Pratchett enters right to die debate

On the day new guidance is published on assisted suicide, Alzheimer's sufferer Sir Terry Pratchett has revealed he 'plans to die' before the disease takes over.

The best-selling fantasy author was diagnosed with a rare early form of Alzheimer's, posterior cortical atrophy, in 2007.

Since then he has became a high profile supporter of dementia research, donating $1 million to the Alzheimer's Research Trust last year.

Speaking at the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth Sir Terry said he was 'one of the lucky ones'.

'I'm going to enjoy my life and then I'm going to die,' he said at a fringe event on Tuesday.

'Individuals in their own free mind should be able to make a decision based on their own free will.

'I do not wish my wife's life to not be permanently blighted.'

Discworld author Sir Terry, who has sold more than 65 million books worldwide, spoke plainly about his condition at a Lib Dem conference fringe event on Tuesday night.

'I can use long and complicated words like corrugated iron and marmalade. I can write novels, I've just written a bloody good one,' he said.

'But the topology of trousers, that's a problem.

'When I was diagnosed at the GP's I was told: 'You've got Alzheimer's, there's the door'. That made me fluorescently angry.'

He went on to envisage a future where 'very old people are looked after by very old people' unless attempts to find a cure for dementia were stepped up.

'I was lucky. I was lucky because I was Terry Pratchett; a rich man with contacts,' Sir Terry added.

'This is a war. It's a war and it needs a Churchill. The system is not going cope, the system is going to crash.'

More than 700,000 people in the UK currently suffer from some form of dementia, a number that is expected to rise to two million by 2050.