Esther Rantzen makes plea about assisted dying as daughter shares health update
Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter has opened up about her mother's cancer diagnosis, and her decision to become a member of Dignitas.
Campaigner and journalist Esther and announced in December that she had become a member of the physician-assisted suicide clinic Dignitas after receiving a stage four lung cancer diagnosis. Since then, Esther confirmed she had stepped back from her presidential role at Childline, the British counselling service for children and young people which she founded.
Her daughter Rebecca Wilcox has taken over her role, something that has made Esther "extremely proud". Speaking on Loose Women, Rebecca updated the panel on how her mum was doing since her news in December, as she spoke of her decision to join Dignitas.
Assisted dying is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, and Rebecca spoke of the laws around assisted dying and the possible consequences of a member's loved one attending the facility with them. Her mother Esther also spoke on the show, sending in two messages to be played out including a plea to viewers.
Sharing an update on how her mum is doing, Rebecca explained: "Fortunately, she is doing ok. We don’t know what is going to happen next, we only know what happened in the last scan and the last scan is always a bit out of date and then you go and meet the oncologist and he asks mum, ‘How are you doing?’ and she says, ‘I don’t know, that’s why I’m here’."
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Esther Rantzen's daughter Rebecca Wilcox spoke to Loose Women (ITV)On how she found out that her mum had joined Dignatas, she went on: "Probably the same time as you! It was a little surprising. She likes surprising us and keeping us on our toes. I mean I’ve always known about how she feels about death and dying, she’s done a lot of work around it. She’s done documentaries, she’s done newspaper articles and books so we’ve always known that the last thing she wants is for our memories of her to be replaced with a traumatic death. A traumatic death involves a patient in pain, so if she’s in pain, why would she want to live any longer? If she’s not getting anything from life and obviously you can live with a certain amount of pain and some people are brilliantly stoical."
Esther then shared her pride over Rebecca taking on her role at Childline in a special voice message. She said: "I am incredibly proud of Rebecca for all kinds of reasons, she is a terrific mother, a terrific daughter, she’s a terrific journalist and I am absolutely thrilled that she is taking on the presidential role at Childline.
“I felt very [inaudible] because I am not able to do what I used to do, which is go in and be a volunteer counsellor on the phone and visit the various Childline bases and meet our staff and volunteers and she’s going to do all of that and it’s such an important role. I know she’ll do it brilliantly and I know she’ll love doing it. Becca, I am extremely proud of you."
Rebecca responded to the message saying: "I don’t feel I could do anything at all in relation to how brilliant she’s been but I just want to do my best. The most important thing is taking this incredible charity that she started in 1996, that I am just so proud to be a part of.
Esther Rantzen shared a special message to her "terrific" daughter (PA)"When we found out that she was going to die sooner than we thought, I thought how can we keep this association going and I was going to train to be a volunteer counsellor and I never thought that they would ask me to do this role and imposter syndrome… When are they going to realise that Olivia Coleman would be so much better?"
Esther also had her say on the debate of assisted dying and issues a plea to viewers, adding: "I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to see this debated in parliament but if you do agree with me, please, please make your views known to your MP and for those that disagree - maybe on religious principles or maybe because they’re professionally absorbed in palliative care and believe that this goes against what they practise in medicine - can I just say, all we ask for is the choice. That’s all we’re asking for, we don’t want to impose our views on you but we do want the choice ourselves."
Rebecca went on: "The fact that she isn’t allowed to choose how she dies, doesn’t make any sense to any of us. She’s chosen how she wants to live and she’s been a bit of a force of nature in that sense so it makes sense in a way that this is the debate that’s coming to the forefront of our family.
“She’s watching now, which is making me really nervous because I feel like I’m putting words in her mouth and you should never do that with Mum!"
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