Broadcaster and campaigner Esther Rantzen is refusing to let terminal illness spoil valuable family time
If there’s an elephant in Esther Rantzen’s New Forest sitting room, it’s well hidden on her daughter Rebecca’s 34th birthday. After a leisurely morning watching the garden birds, the two are tucking into a celebration roast chicken lunch with Esther’s elder daughter and Rebecca’s sister, Miriam. It’s a poignant occasion because it could be the last birthday they spend together.
Dame Esther, the 83-year-old formidable TV presenter and campaigner who launched the Childline and Silver Line charities, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in January 2023. It’s since spread and they’re living from fortnightly scan to scan.
“I’ve got more time with mum than I ever thought I would have,” says Rebecca. “Our family adores making each other laugh and we love telling each other interesting news. We rarely get emotional.”
“I’m very aware how precious each day is,” adds Esther who only wants to be remembered by her family “for all the laughter and love we shared”. So today’s all about that – complete with a surprise birthday cake oozing cream and strawberries.
“At this point I did burst into tears!” admits Rebecca. As much as they’re trying to ignore the diagnosis, it is still present.
“It’s not there and it is there…” mulls Rebecca, who doesn’t even know what her mum’s last wishes are, though she thinks it involves the song Oh What a Beautiful Morning!
There’s just a lot to pack in right now. Like choosing a birthday gift – trainers or a plant?
And they need to talk about Rebecca taking over from her mum as Childline president while also training to be a volunteer counsellor.
“I know she’ll love it –and be good at it,” says Esther. To mark the succession, she’s jokingly addressed the card she’s made to ‘Madame President’.
Ever the consumer champion, Esther also wants to discuss the recent Post Office scandal, which highlighted the plight of hundreds of postal workers whose reputations were ruined by allegations of theft and false accounting. “If only That’s Life! (her hugely popular long-running BBC series) had been on the air when the first cases were happening. At least they would have realised they were not the ‘only one’, as the ‘helpline’ told them, and was an outright lie,” she laments.
Right now, though, she has another campaign to champion which is likely to be her last.
Following her beloved husband Desi’s death from heart disease 23 years ago, Esther is determined to have ‘a good death’ and has joined the campaign group Dignity in Dying to change the law on assisted dying which is cur
