Tony Nicklinson believes that the attention and support he has won on social networking site Twitter could help his legal challenge at the High Court.

Mr Nicklinson, 58, took his battle for the right to die to the court last week and is now awaiting a ruling from the judges in the case.

Last Monday, Mr Nicklinson was the subject of a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary and joined Twitter shortly before the broadcast.

By this week, Mr Nicklinson had topped 40,000 followers, who are people who subscribe to his tweet messages.

He said: “The attention and general interest has been fantastic and seems to have touched a nerve with the twitterati.

“For some strange reason, the Daily Mail reported that Twitter was awash with protest at what I doing, but I have to say that I found no evidence of this.

“In fact, it was just the opposite; almost total support, with best wishes for the judgement.

“I can only conclude that it’s wishful thinking on the part of the Daily Mail.

“I am sure that the judges are aware of the level of Twitter support and that can only be good.

“I received loads [of support]. Twitter was close to 100 per cent. Fabulous.

“I doubt that I would have gone on Twitter ordinarily, but these are exceptional circumstances.

“Twitter is merely a means to an end. I am amazed at the number of people interested in me. It isn’t exactly liberating, but it’s certainly different and a bit addictive.”

Mr Nicklinson added that he and his family, who had all watched the documentary together for the first time when it aired, were very pleased with the programme.

However, seeing the Greek doctor who treated him following his stroke made him feel “a little bit sad”.

“I don’t really want him to feel guilty about me living for all these years after he saved my life, but I do want him and others in the life-saving business to consider the consequences of what they do and pressure society to think about it too.

“Medicine keeps many more alive who would otherwise have died and the quality of life is, I feel, important. Just because you can doesn’t necessarily mean that you do.”

Of the court ruling, which is likely to be announced in September, he said: “I just want to know what the future holds for me.”