Dame Esther Rantzen: That's Life! presenter, Childline founder and campaigner for assisted dying

Dame Esther Rantzen, the longtime presenter of That's Life! and founder of Childline, has remained a vocal advocate for assisted dying legislation throughout her later years. In December 2023 she disclosed that she was undergoing a "miracle" attraction for her lung cancer, adding that she mightiness "buzz disconnected to Zurich" - wherever assisted dying is ineligible - if the treatment failed. A year later she observed the House of Commons vote in favour of the initial form of a Bill that could render medically assisted death unlawful in England and Wales, while a comparable proposal was tabled in the Scottish Parliament. Although she acknowledged she would not live long enough to benefit from any forthcoming law, she said her aim was to spare other families from "the aforesaid agonising experience". She recalled, "In the olden days, doctors would easiness you retired of beingness and the quality was it wasn't needfully with your consent." In March 2025 her daughter confirmed that the factor sustaining Dame Esther since her cancer diagnosis had ceased to function, noting that its effects were always expected to be temporary. The previous December she shared with a newspaper her plans for "an 'official' Christmas with my children and 5 grandchildren, somewhat up of the existent Christmas truthful that determination volition beryllium much accidental that I americium really live to bask it with them!" By September 2026 the House of Commons rejected the Assisted Dying Bill, a outcome Dame Esther labelled "a tragic day". She added that she was now too frail to travel to Switzerland to end her life, stating, "Everything I didn't privation to hap I'm having to spell done now," she said, "which means that the radical I emotion and attraction astir either cannot sojourn me, oregon erstwhile they do, spot maine suffering symptom oregon indignity which volition inevitably get betwixt them and our shared blessed memories, and whitethorn adjacent overwhelm the mode they deliberation of me." When questioned about what motivates her involvement in numerous causes, she replied, "I request to beryllium needed," she said. "It's what makes you get up successful the morning, and makes you consciousness erstwhile you spell to furniture that the time has been good spent." She further remarked, "There's a existent pleasance successful feeling idiosyncratic needs your assistance and that you really person made a difference."