Dame Esther Rantzen, 85, heartbreakingly reveals she would not have lengthy left to reside as she provides a well being replace on her lung most cancers battle

Dame Esther Rantzer has heartbreakingly revealed she doesn’t have long left to live, three years after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. 

Giving a health update on Sunday, the presenter, 85, said a miracle drug which she was put on in 2024 has stopped working. 

Dame Esther said she is anxiously awaiting an MRI scan next week which will reveal the extent to which the cancer has spread. 

She went on to give an emotional plea to make assisted dying in the UK legal as she talked about facing the thought of going to Dignitas, a non-profit organisation that provides physician-assisted death, in Switzerland alone. 

Dame Esther wrote in The Observer: ‘Last week was the third anniversary of my diagnosis with stage four lung cancer, and to my astonishment, thanks to one of the new miracle drugs, I’m still here. Not for much longer.

‘The drug has stopped working now and a scan next week will reveal how far my disease has spread. I’m definitely not going to live long enough to see the assisted dying bill become law. 

Dame Esther Rantzer has heartbreakingly revealed she doesn’t have long left to live, three years after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer

‘So if my life becomes unbearably painful and I long for a quick, pain-free death, I will have to go to Dignitas in Switzerland, alone.’

Dame Esther said of her final wish: ‘all I ask is that future generations be given the confidence and hope of a fast, pain-free death when they need it most’.   

Both Dame Esther and her daughter Rebecca are advocates for making assisted dying legal in the UK. 

The Bill’s proposals would allow adults with terminal illnesses in England and Wales who have less than six months to live to apply for an assisted death.

An application would have to be approved by two doctors and a panel including a social worker, senior legal figure and a psychiatrist.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which was voted through by MPs in the Commons in June, is back in the Lords on Friday for further scrutiny.

Members of the Lords have tabled more than 1,000 amendments – a record number for a private member’s Bill – prompting supporters to accuse opponents of trying to delay or talk out the draft legislation, leading it to run out of time to be passed before spring when the current session of Parliament ends.

But this week, Bill supporters have said the Parliament Act could be invoked to override objections from peers if the draft law is not approved before the King’s Speech in May.

Broadcaster and ChildLine founder Esther said some peers were not being honest about their motives for suggesting amendments.

In her letter to peers, she said: ‘The House of Lords is not being honest. The real motive behind these 1,000 amendments is not to improve the Bill, to block it.

Both Dame Esther and her daughter Rebecca are advocates for making assisted dying legal in the UK 

Demonstrators once again gathered outside Parliament last week both in support of and in opposition to the Bill – which would apply to England and Wales if it became law

‘The truth is that none of the thousand amendments you propose would reassure you and enable you to vote for the Bill because you oppose it on principle.

She said some are ‘forcing on non-believers’ their personal religious principles, are disability campaigners who believe ‘quite wrongly that the Bill will apply pressure to disabled people when it only applies to terminally ill people like me’, or think there is a risk the legislation’s eligibility criteria could be broadened if passed.

She wrote: ‘Please stop inventing fictitious excuses to block what the majority of the public have asked for, and the House of Commons have voted for.

‘It’s your choice, please allow us also the dignity of choice, not to shorten our lives, but to shorten our deaths.

‘No change in the law can come in time for me. But at least you can give hope to future generations.’