Esther Rantzen, 84, cancer battle takes devastating turn as daughter provides heartbreaking health update

Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, has shared the heartbreaking news that her mother’s cancer medication is no longer effective. The 84-year-old broadcaster and founder of Childline was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023.

During an interview on 5 News, Wilcox told host Julian Druker, “I really wish that was true, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.” Rantzen had previously been taking a new drug that slowed the spread of her cancer, but it has now stopped working.

Rantzen first noticed symptoms in December 2022 when she felt unusually tired and found a lump under her arm. Tests later confirmed her advanced cancer diagnosis, and at one point, doctors warned she might only have weeks to live.

Last year, Rantzen spoke about the drug that had given her more time, saying, “It doesn’t cure it, it delays it—and at some point, it will stop working.” By September, she appeared on Lorraine, saying she was doing “much better” thanks to the treatment. But now, her condition has worsened.

Rantzen has been a strong supporter of legalizing assisted dying in the UK. She had previously considered going to Dignitas, a Swiss clinic that helps terminally ill people end their lives, but her declining health has made that impossible.

Wilcox explained, “Frankly, Dignitas is out of the window for us as well. You have to be relatively healthy to do that—if she had gone, she would have gone months before she would have died here.”

She also spoke about the fear of prosecution if she helped her mother travel abroad for assisted dying. “I can’t say whether I’d go with her because I’d face prosecution,” she told Hello! magazine.

Rantzen has argued that the law should change to give terminally ill people the choice. “This is not right, and as it is my life, I, like the majority of the public, believe it should be my choice,” she said.

Wilcox made an emotional appeal during her interview, saying, “All the assisted dying bill is, is choice for people that want it. It’s giving you peace of mind—and that peace of mind, I cannot tell you how powerful that would be right now for my mum.”

She described the distress of not knowing how her mother’s illness will progress. “She is a person who has fought her whole life for other people, and she has no control now.”

Rantzen has said she hopes for a pain-free death surrounded by loved ones. “Even if it doesn’t happen in my time, I do hope that other people in my situation will be given the choice,” she told Lorraine.

Despite her illness, Rantzen remains hopeful that the law will change to help others in the future.