Marie Curie Cancer Care said many people would prefer to die in familiar surroundings rather than in a hospital, hospice or nursing home.

Every pound spent on nursing care in the home released �2, according to charity spokeswoman Susan Munroe.

"People we have spoken to say... it's such a privilege to look after people at that time in their lives," she said.

"We know that it helps them enormously in their grieving process as well if they feel they have done something really constructive to help the patient at that time in their life."

The �2 freed up by spending more on care in the home was money for hopsital beds for people who really needed them.

Home option

The Scottish Executive said many families were choosing to have terminal care provided in a hospice or nursing home.

But Marie Curie said that with the right support, many more families would opt to nurse a dying relative at home.

Experts at Edinburgh University said in a report last year that more terminally ill people should be allowed to die at home

Research in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) showed that fewer than a third of cancer patients lost their fight for life in their own beds.