Esther Rantzen’s daughter shares heartbreaking update on presenter’s terminal cancer diagnosis

Rantzen has been a passionate advocate for assisted dying to be legalised in the UK

The daughter of Dame Esther Rantzen has revealed that the cancer drugs that her mother was placed on last year are no longer working.

The 84-year-old revealed in 2024 that her cancer was being kept at bay thanks to a new drug, which had left her feeling “much better” than she thought she would be.

The broadcaster, who is best known for founding Childline, a telephone helpline for young people aged up to 18, has previously revealed that she has registered with the Swiss assisted dying clinic, Dignitas.

Speaking to 5 News on Thursday (27 March), Rantzen’s daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, said that the medication her daughter was put “was an improvement”, but then admitted: “I really wish that was true but I don't think that's the case anymore.”

Wilcox also revealed that Rantzen’s health is so poor that travelling to Dignitas is now out of the question.

Both Rantzen and Wilcox are advocates of making assisted dying legal in the UK. The topic is the subject of a much-debated parliamentary bill which has this week been delayed by two years.

Speaking of the delay, Wilcox explained: “I just wish that people understood that all the assisted dying bill is, is choice for people that want it. All it is, is giving you peace of mind and that peace of mind, I cannot tell you how powerful that would be right now for my mum.

“I'm a witness to the trauma of uncertainty, to the trauma of stress around what is going to happen. The fact that she doesn't know how her death is going to happen, how the pain is going to progress, the exhaustion, the fatigue, what symptoms are going to come in.

Dame Esther Rantzen waves from a bus during the Platinum Jubilee Pageant in London in June 2022 (PA Archive)

“She is a person who has fought her whole life for other people, and she has no control now. Why can't we give people like my mum with a terminal diagnosis, with no other choice, some choice as to when and how and where they die?”

She continued: “Frankly, Dignitas is out of the window for us as well. You have to be relatively healthy to do that, if she had gone, she would have gone months before she would have died here.”

Estimates published in 2024 suggested that more than 7,000 people a year – or roughly 20 per day – in the UK are in pain in the last three months of their lives.

The Office of Health Economics (OHE), which said it has no stance either way on the topic of assisted dying, said its estimates presumed the person was getting the highest standard of care available, likely to be in a hospice.

This means the true number of people dying in pain is “likely to be significantly higher than our conservative estimate”, the organisation said.