SUFFERERS of Motor Neurone Disease have been promised more support after their plight was raised by councillors.

Worcestershire County Council has agreed to adopt a new charter aimed at making the lives of those carrying the disease more comfortable.

The illness is a fatal, rapidly progressing disease that affects the brain and spinal cord and eventually leaves its victims unable to move, talk and then breathe.

It kills six people per day in the UK and in Worcestershire there are currently around 50 known sufferers.

All the political parties at County Hall have united as one to agree to adopt the MND Charter, which gives people the right to an early diagnoses, access to quality treatment and proper support for carers.

It also encourages councillors to be an effective 'part of the jigsaw' by helping co-ordinate the support on offer to MND sufferers if people ask for help.

A motion calling for the council to adopt the charter was the idea of Councillor Rachel Jenkins, an independent.

Speaking during a full council meeting, she said: "To take on this motion would show commitment and care in what the council can give MND sufferers.

"It's a charter of respect and support for people with the disease."

She called it a "devastating" illness, before other councillors joined in to echo her words.

Green Councillor Matt Jenkins said: "The council has a duty and an obligation to raise awareness of MND, by adopting it we'll be sending out a clear message that we are supportive of this charter."

Councillor Marc Bayliss, a Conservative cabinet member added: "It's an absolutely terrible disease that none of us would want to befall anybody.

"From the administration's point of view, we'll be supporting this."

Councillor Jo Baker, from the Labour group, called the disease "atrocious" and said they all had a responsibility to get up to speed with it.

During the public speaking section of the meeting a county resident turned up to urge them to back the charter, saying his father died from it.

Martin Benbow, who has formed close ties with the Motor Neurone Disease Association because of what his dad went through, said: "It is a cruel disease and there is always a fatal ending - sufferers end up in a shell of a body."

The motion was backed unanimously.