Diane Pretty - who lost a historic legal battle for her husband to help her commit suicide - has died.

The mother-of-two, who suffered from motor neurone disease, was now "free at last", said her husband, Brian, who was at his 43-year-old wife's bedside when she died at a hospice on Saturday.

Mrs Pretty had begun experiencing breathing difficulties ten days ago, just three days after she lost her right-to-die challenge at the European Court of Human Rights.

Mrs Pretty, from Luton, Bedfordshire, had always said she wanted her husband to help her commit suicide because she feared the choking and asphyxia often caused by her disease. But she wanted to make sure he would be exempt from the threat of prosecution.

Mr Pretty said: "Diane had to go through the one thing she had foreseen and was afraid of - and there was nothing I could do to help."

In a statement issued by the Voluntary Euthanasia Society (VES), which supported the couple in their legal fight, he said: "On Thursday, May 2, Diane asked me to call the doctor as she was having trouble with her breathing.

"She had no chest infection and her airways were clear.

"The next day she went into the hospice and started having breathing problems again.

"The doctors and nurses managed to get her stable for a few days but she was still in pain.

"The staff were wonderful at their job and there was always someone there with her.

"They had trouble getting her comfortable and pain-free until Thursday evening, after which she started to slip into a coma-like state and eventually died.

"Out of this, Diane had to go through the one thing she had foreseen and was afraid of - and there was nothing I could do to help.

"I was with Diane most of the day and was about to come home when I was stopped and told it was time.

"And then for Diane it was over, free at last."

VES director Deborah Annetts said: "Diane was an extraordinary woman. Everyone who had the privilege of meeting her was struck by her humanity and bravery in the face of unbearable suffering."

Rachel Hurst, director of Disability Awareness in Action, said the organisation stood by its support of the European Court's decision not to allow Mr Pretty to help her commit suicide.

"The issue about Diane Pretty is that she wanted to kill herself, but I am afraid it would be very wrong for justice to say in certain circumstances people can die.

"It would be a slippery slope and many people who did not want to die could be affected," she said.

Asked whether Ms Pretty was denied the kind of death she would have wanted, Ms Hurst said: "I am not prepared to make any sort of comment on another person's death because we don't know what it is like to die. It's impossible.

"Palliative care does take away a great deal of the problem, and was her death any worse than someone in the Potters Bar crash?"

She added that each case varied, but she had known people suffering from motor neurone disease who had had peaceful deaths with the proper palliative care.

Hospice doctor Ryszard Bietzk said her death was "perfectly normal, natural and peaceful".

There was no reason for police to be involved or notified, he said.

"Diane is now at peace and our thoughts go to supporting her family.