LESLIE BURKE, who is terminally ill, is an irrepressibly cheerful and generous- spirited man, but he harbours a vision of Hell. In it he is lying on a bed unable to move or speak, but with his mind fully intact, when he hears his doctors say they are going to cut off his food and drink and allow him to die.

During the two or three weeks it takes him to starve to death, he remains fully cognisant and feels acutely the pain and fear of his demise.

“My great fear is that the doctors will make a judgment to let me die that is not my judgment and that I won’t be able to do anything about it. It would mean that as I starve to death, I would be conscious for every minute until I die,” he said.

Yesterday Mr Burke, 44, a former postman from Lancaster who is suffering from a degenerative brain condition, was able for the first time in years to banish this nightmare scenario from his mind.

The ruling means that instead of doctors making a decision about whether he receives artificial nutrition and hydration on the basis of their opinion on his quality of life, he will make that decision himself. In effect, he has been allowed to choose the manner of his own death. “I’m walking on air. I was ecstatic when I first heard the news and I’m still ecstatic now,” he said.

Mr Burke did not travel to London for the High Court judgment, preferring instead to save his energy for a more vital engagement today. “I’m standing as godfather at a baby-naming ceremony. That’s why I didn’t go. I didn’t want to get too tired. It’s my friend’s daughter, she’s called Caitlin. Being there for my friends was more important.”

Mr Burke had cerebellar ataxia, a degenerative brain condition, diagnosed in 1983. His younger brother, Robert, also has the hereditary condition. Today he uses a wheelchair and is slowly losing the power of speech, his balance and his co-ordination. He slurs his words slightly. He has been told that his condition will completely deteriorate in less than 20 years.

He brought his case against the General Medical Council, entirely supported by legal aid, because, under existing guidelines, two doctors must decide whether to provide or continue artificial feeding on their assessment of the patient’s “quality of life”. Mr Burke believes that it should be left to the patient.

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