Esther Rantzen plans early Christmas to give her chance of being ‘alive’ for it

Dame Esther Rantzen has said she is planning an official Christmas before December 25 to give her a greater chance of being “alive to enjoy it” with her family.

The Childline founder and former broadcaster, 85, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in January 2023, and has since been a leading voice in the campaign to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales.

Writing for The Times, Dame Esther revealed that she has been diagnosed with a different kind of cancer and described it as “quite annoying” to be “attacked” by two different kinds of cancer at the same time.

She said: “This year I am planning an ‘official’ Christmas with my children and five grandchildren, slightly ahead of the real Christmas so that there will be more chance that I am actually alive to enjoy it with them.

“When I was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2023, I did not expect to last until the next Christmas, so the fact that I am still here and looking forward to this one is a wonderful surprise.

“Since my diagnosis, I have learnt more about stage 4 lung cancer than I ever wanted to know. The wonderful new piece of information, or new to me, is that my particular kind of lung cancer responds to one of the new targeted ‘wonder drugs’, which instantly shrank my various tumours. But it was always explained to me that this would be a delay rather than a cure.

“And a further diagnosis, comparatively recently, has revealed that I am also being attacked by a completely different kind of cancer, which needed treatment with chemotherapy and being zapped with radiotherapy. I’m not sure exactly what it is. But it is quite annoying to have two different kinds of cancer simultaneously.”

The former broadcaster revealed that she is not currently receiving any treatment as her doctor says the side-effects outweigh the benefit – and that despite the cancers progressing, a recent scan showed that it was happening “very slowly”.

She said: “Incidentally, I have also discovered a mental health issue I never expected, scanxiety.

“Since I have no idea what is actually happening inside my own body, but every scan, every three or four months, carries with it the possibility of bad news, as the date approaches my anxiety levels rise — and we cancer patients have christened it scanxiety.”

Dame Esther began her career as a sound effects assistant on BBC radio, before becoming a researcher on a number of the corporation’s shows.

She later got her big break in 1973 with the consumer show, That’s Life! which went beyond the reaches of a traditional show of its kind, shutting down abusive boarding schools and campaigning for more organ donors.

Her work on the show eventually led to her setting up Childline in 1986, followed by an elderly equivalent, The Silver Line, in 2013, and she has most recently begun campaigning for assisted dying to be legalised.

Earlier this year, she confirmed that she was making arrangements to go to the assisted dying clinic, Dignitas, in Switzerland by herself after first joining in December 2023.

She said: “My great hope for 2026, which I do not expect to survive long enough to witness, is the final passing of the Assisted Dying Bill through all its stages in parliament.

“I am tremendously impressed by its main champion, Kim Leadbeater, who once told me her one ambition, when she took on her murdered sister Jo Cox’s parliamentary seat, was to make a positive difference. Choosing this issue for her private member’s bill has already given hope to thousands of terminally ill people like me.

“However, I have been depressed by how its opponents, who in reality would never accept a new law on principle, have pretended to put forward amendments simply to block the legislation.

“I know I won’t live long enough to see Leadbeater’s bill become law, and the current cruel, messy criminal law means I may have to die alone in Zurich instead of surrounded by my loving family in my home, but as long as others in the future will be able to ask for help to die as they choose, I will die happy.”

Dame Esther previously spoke of how her family could not travel to Dignitas with her “because otherwise they are liable to being accused of killing me and they get investigated by the police, so that’s just messy and wrong and not what we want”.

The Assisted Dying Bill will become law only if both the House of Commons and House of Lords agree on the final drafting of the legislation – with approval needed before spring when the current session of Parliament ends.

If passed, it would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.