Dame Esther Rantzen’s, 84, daughter shares update on mother’s health battle as she delivers sweet message
Rebecca Wilcox, daughter of Dame Esther Rantzen, 84, has shared a candid update on her mother’s health, saying she “might get in trouble for being so honest.”
The 84-year-old broadcaster and ChildLine founder, who is campaigning for the legalisation of assisted dying, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2023 and is now in stage four.
During an appearance on Loose Women on Tuesday, host Charlene White asked Rebecca how her mother was doing.
While careful not to overstep, Rebecca admitted: “I get in trouble because I’m overly honest. I share everything. I will tell you absolutely everything about how I am, down to latest bowel movements, should you so wish. But I mustn’t tell you what she’s up to because she’s private, as she should be.”
She added: “What she has said for me to say is she loves you, she sends her love and she’s coping.”
The update comes after Rantzen recently made a deeply emotional statement in an interview with The Times, reflecting on her diagnosis and sharing her final wishes.
“If there is a heaven, it would be a very happy place. It’s a lovely idea to meet [husband] Desmond again and all those I have loved and lost- my parents and grandparents, my close friends and family.”
Rantzen was diagnosed with lung cancer after discovering a lump under her armpit around Christmas 2022.
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By January 2023, a biopsy confirmed the disease, and in May she announced it had reached stage four.
Initially prescribed medication to manage her symptoms, her daughter revealed in March that the treatment was no longer effective.
Since her diagnosis, Rantzen has spoken openly about joining Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying clinic, as a way to have control over her end-of-life choices should her suffering become “unbearable.”
She has also been a vocal supporter of the Assisted Dying Bill currently under debate in Parliament, though she acknowledges that any legal changes are unlikely to come in time for her.
MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the bill, has agreed to pause its implementation until at least 2029.
“I always knew that any change in the assisted dying law could not possibly come in time for me,” Rantzen wrote in The Times.
“So the delay – the law in England and Wales could be pushed back until at least 2029 – won’t affect me personally.”
While assisted dying remains illegal in England, the Isle of Man has recently passed a bill on the issue, pending royal assent from King Charles, which would make it the first part of Great Britain to legalise the practice.
With the delay in mind, Rantzen felt she owed an apology to fellow terminal illness sufferers in the rest of the UK for not getting the bill passed sooner.
She poignantly penned: “I am extremely sorry for the sake of other terminally ill patients who will be denied the right to choose.
“The sooner it is put in place, the more patients will be given that right and the more vulnerable people will be protected from pressure or coercion. At the moment, the law does not protect them at all.”