Dame Esther Rantzen has offered a deeply moving update on her ongoing cancer journey, revealing she intends to celebrate Christmas ahead of schedule this year as there is “more chance” she will be well enough to enjoy it with her family. The broadcaster and campaigner, 85, has been living with stage-four lung cancer since 2023 and was once told she had only weeks left to live. Last year, she spoke with optimism about an experimental treatment that had slowed the progression of her illness and granted her precious additional time.
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However, in an interview with The Times, Dame Esther confirmed she now plans to mark Christmas early with her children and five grandchildren.
“This year I am planning an ‘official’ Christmas slightly before the real one, so there will be more chance that I am actually alive to enjoy it with them,” she said. She also reflected on the unexpected gift of celebrating the festive season in 2023, admitting she had not believed she would still be here for it.
Dame Esther revealed she has faced a second, unrelated cancer this year and has undergone both chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
“A further diagnosis, comparatively recently, has revealed that I am also being attacked by a completely different kind of cancer,” she explained. “Right now, I’m not receiving any treatment at all, as my doctor decided the side-effects outweigh the benefits. The cancers are progressing but, according to my latest scan, very slowly.”
The longtime presenter and founder of Childline has been using her platform to advocate in favour of the Assisted Dying Bill, currently under consideration in the House of Lords after passing through the Commons in June. In September, she shared that she has made arrangements with the Swiss assisted dying clinic Dignitas, having joined in December 2023. She has previously said she may consider travelling there if future scans show no treatment options remain.
Dame Esther has been outspoken about what she describes as the “cruel” nature of the current law in England, arguing that changes—while welcome—would likely come too late to help her personally. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said: “I’m making arrangements because it’s the only way I can have an assisted death—by going on my own to Zurich, to Dignitas. I just wish I was allowed to say goodbye to my family and for them to see that I have a good death.”
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She stressed that her concern is not death itself, but the possibility of suffering in her final days.
“I’m not afraid of death,” she said. “But I am, as someone once put it, afraid of dying. I’m afraid of dying badly.”
