A locked-in syndrome patient seeking permission for a doctor to end his life in the High Court has been captured on film tweeting for the first time.
Tony Nicklinson, who seven years ago had a major stroke that left his body completely paralysed, used special eye movement technology to access the social networking site.
He wrote the message: "Hello world. I am tony nicklinson, I have locked-in syndrome and this is my first ever tweet. #tony."
After being on the website for less than 24 hours, he had almost 2,500 followers.
Mr Nicklinson, 57, can only communicate by using a computer that follows his eye movements. Software converts his eye movement into the letters of the alphabet and in turn into words and speech.
Channel 4's Dispatches captured the moment ahead of a programme about Mr Nicklinson's life which airs on Monday at 8pm.
Mr Nicklinson is asking the High Court to grant declarations that a doctor could intervene to end his "indignity"
On Monday, Mr Nicklinson and his family, who live in Melksham, Wiltshire, will go to the High Court to argue that a doctor should be allowed lawfully to end his life.
Mr Nicklinson sums up his life as "dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable".
In the proceedings, Mr Nicklinson, who suffered a stroke in 2005 while on a business trip to Athens, is asking the High Court to grant declarations that a doctor could intervene to end his "indignity", with his consent and with him making the decision with full mental capacity, and have a "common law defence of necessity" against any murder charge.
Before the stroke Mr Nicklinson, who has two grown-up daughters, was a "very active and outgoing man".