DEATH WISH - WINNER: 'I'D RATHER DIE THAN LOSE MY LEG'

DEATH WISH director MICHAEL WINNER has defied doctors' advice to amputate his diseased leg, insisting he would "rather die than have it cut off". The filmmaker is in a critical condition in the private London Hospital after falling ill with an unknown condition while on holiday in Barbados earlier this month (03JAN07). Winner initially believed he was suffering from an allergic reaction to antibiotics given for a fever he had developed in the Caribbean resort, but it is now thought he is suffering the effects of an unknown long-term sickness. Medics in the British capital have since told the 71-year-old his only hope of survival may be to amputate his left limb. Winner's PA, ROSE BRYAN, confirms, "He is not very well. Very ill in fact."