Dame Esther Rantzen has revealed that her cancer medication has stopped working, and her time is now 'extremely limited'. The 85-year-old broadcaster, diagnosed with incurable lung cancer three years ago, said her body no longer responds to the life-preserving drugs.
Writing in the Observer, she explained that she has been attacked by a completely different type of cancer, requiring chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but she will not receive treatment. 'The drug has stopped working now and a scan next week will reveal how far my disease has spread,' she wrote.
Dame Esther, a prominent advocate for assisted dying, said she will not live long enough to see the assisted dying bill become law. She stated that if her life becomes unbearably painful, she will have to go to Dignitas in Switzerland alone. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, passed by the House of Commons in June, would allow terminally ill adults with six months to live to end their life, subject to approval. Assisted dying is currently illegal in the UK.
She criticised some members of the House of Lords for attempting to delay the bill with a record number of amendments, saying they will force more families to watch loved ones die slowly in agony. In a previous interview, she said she is 'not afraid of death but afraid of dying badly' and wished to say goodbye to her family.
Dame Esther is best known for presenting That's Life! and founding Childline in 1986, now part of the NSPCC.
