A law tutor at Oxford University, whose boyfriend died of epilepsy, looks set to win her 10-year battle to prove that hundreds of people die needlessly from the illness.

Jane Hanna has presented a hard-hitting report to Parliament about epilepsy deaths, which she produced with the support of eminent medical experts.

Her work is believed to have made history because it is thought to be the first time a national medical audit has been led by someone without clinical training.

Ms Hanna, a part-time tutor at Keble College, founded the charity Epilepsy Bereaved after the death of her barrister boyfriend Alan Pring, who died in 1990, aged 27, only five months after being diagnosed.

The report found that 59 per cent of deaths in children and 39 per cent of adult deaths from epilepsy were potentially avoidable. It said shortcomings in care and failure to warn patients of the risks were contributory factors. Epilepsy Bereaved is based at Ms Hanna's home in Charlton Road, Wantage.

She said it had taken a long struggle to alert the Government about an illness that is still mistakenly viewed as a benign condition. Epilepsy causes 1,000 deaths in the UK each year, more than the combined figures for cot deaths and Aids.

Ms Hanna, 39, a Wantage town councillor, said: "This report is a call for action for the health service. Five Government reports identified inadequacies in epilepsy services, but they have all gathered dust.

"The four UK chief medical officers recognise that by taking action now, lives may be saved. But we want to be sure that this commitment from above will make improvements at the grass roots of health care."

The report's launch in London on Monday was attended by junior minister Stephen Twigg, whose mother died of epilepsy 10 years ago.