A former Shropshire education advisor who was diagnosed with fatal motor neurone disease more than three years ago, is fronting a national campaign to get a better deal for patients suffering from the illness.

Chris Woodhead, 63, together with the MND Association, is appealing for people to pledge their support online at www.mnd2010.org and call on the Government to produce a national strategy to improve the quality of life of patients who have the disease, and allow them to achieve dignity in death.

Mr Woodhead, who has revealed that he would rather commit suicide than die of the progressive illness which leads to total paralysis, said: “The next Government will need to invest far more seriously in MND than has been the case up to now.

“Care is patchy. It can be good in some areas, appalling in others.

“We need national guidelines as to what patients can reasonably expect. Resources should be increased but also used more efficiently.”

Mr Woodhead first came to Shropshire in 1969 as a teacher at the old Priory Boys School in Shrewsbury. He spent “three really good years” there and got to like the county “immensely”.

He left but returned to Shropshire in 1982 as an English advisor and was later appointed chief education advisor with the former Shropshire County Council.

Mr Woodhead recalls his time in Shropshire as one of the “very best periods in my career”.

He became well known at a national level as the controversial Chief Inspector of schools in England – a post he held from 1994 to 2000 – and once claimed there were 15,000 “incompetent” teachers.

Today he lives in North Wales and despite his illness he remains chairman of a company which runs a chain of private schools, and teaches three days a weeks at the University of Buckinghamshire.

He was once a keen runner and mountain climber.

But MND causes weakness and wasting of the muscles, loss of mobility in the limbs, and difficulty with speaking, swallowing and breathing.

“I can still feed myself, get a fork and knife to my mouth, but my arms are getting weaker,” said Mr Woodhead.

“Cleaning my teeth is becoming more difficult. My plan is to decide at some point that I have had enough.

“I don’t want to soldier on, incapable of doing anything by myself, and dependent on other people to get me through the day.”

By Dave Morris