A TERMINALLY-ILL prisoner is on the verge of being allowed home to die after a campaign by family and friends.

More than 700 people have signed up to a Facebook campaign and scores of letters have been sent calling for the release of Brett Duxbury.

Mr Duxbury, 36, has lung cancer and his condition is deteriorating rapidly.

His mum Alison Whewell, of Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, said: "Brett is very ill and it shouldn’t have come to this but I’m hopeful something will happen very soon."

Ms Whewell, who has called the situation cruel and inhuman, has now had a meeting with officials at Lancaster Prison, where her son is serving five years for burglary.

She says she has been bolstered by the Facebook campaign and scores of letters which have been sent to authorities calling for his release on compassionate grounds.

She said: "The meeting lasted almost two hours and was all about Brett’s health. Everyone seemed clear that Brett should be out now."

Her son is due to be released officially in January but he fears he won’t live to see his three teenage children and two sisters outside jail again.

"The prison is doing everything it can," she said.

"His tumour has doubled in size but fortunately it hasn’t spread. I know he will get home. It’s just a case of the Ministry of Justice deciding on this.

"Brett’s had that many knock backs he doesn’t believe he will get home.

"I don’t care if people think this is wrong. He is coming home because he deserves to be here with his family and three children. I won’t give up on him and want him home with us."

Mr Duxbury, a father of three, was refused permission to leave prison in May by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, after he was deemed a medium risk to the public after absconding from an open prison last year. The former pupil of Rhyddings High School has lost seven and a half pounds in weight over a 10 days.

Ms Whewell said: "It’s hard work trying to keep Brett positive and he’s desperate to get out because he’s really ill.

A Prison Service spokesperson said: "We do not discuss the cases of individual prisoners but the criteria for compassionate release in medical cases are where the prisoner is suffering from a terminal illness and death is likely to occur soon (a life expectancy of three months is considered an appropriate period), or where the prisoner is bedridden or severely incapacitated."

Mr Duxbury’s solicitor Graeme Parkinson, a partner at Forbes Solicitors in Accrington, said: "Hopefully something will happen before it’s too late. At some stage they will release him I think. But it’s a question of when.

"As his health deteriorates his predicament deteriorate."