Dame Esther Rantzen has given a devastating update on her health, revealing her decision to celebrate Christmas with her family after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2023
Dame Esther reveals she’s being ‘attacked’ by another kind of cancer(Image: Getty Images)
Dame Esther Rantzen has candidly shared a heartbreaking update into her health, after being diagnosed with incurable cancer in 2023.
The TV presenter, 85, was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in 2023 and earlier this year revealed she was no longer being treated for her cancer, after her life-preserving drugs stopped working. Now, the journalist has revealed she recently discovered she is “being attacked by a completely different kind of cancer”, which required chemotherapy and radiotherapy – but she wouldn’t be receiving treatment for.
As she revealed her plants to celebrate Christmas with her family early this year, she also issued the update on her health.
Dame Esther has given a heartbreaking update on her health(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Writing in a column with The Times, Dame Esther revealed: “And a further diagnosis, comparatively recently, has revealed that I am also being attacked by a completely different kind of cancer, which needed treatment with chemotherapy and being zapped with radiotherapy. I’m not sure exactly what it is. But it is quite annoying to have two different kinds of cancer simultaneously.”
Esther also revealed she is “not receiving any treatment at all”, which was a decision made by her doctor as “the side-effects outweigh the benefits”. She added: “So the cancers are progressing but, according to my most recent scan, very slowly.”
The TV star also revealed that she has struggled with ‘scanxiety’, which causes her anxiety whenever the date of a scan approaches.
After speaking out about support for assisted dying earlier this year, Dame Esther has said her health “has not been bad enough for me to book a flight to Zurich”, where she plans to travel to Dignitas if life “ever becomes unbearable”. The star also confessed she realises she “may last longer than expected” so has started making plans for the near-future, including “ordering tulip bulbs for the spring”.
Dame Esther, pictured with her daughter, plans to celebrate Christmas early with her family(Image: PA)
And, while Dame Esther has planned an early Christmas with her family, she has said that if she is ‘still around’, she is looking forward to “relaxing, quiet days at home, spiced up with plenty of exuberant Zoom and phone calls”.
It comes after Dame Esther admitted she is “afraid of dying badly” as she discussed the assisted dying bill. She revealed in a phone chat with Kate Garraway on Good Morning Britain in September, she said: “I’m not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying badly. I’m making arrangements because it’s the only way I can have an assisted death to go to by myself to Zurich, to Dignitas.”
She then issued a heartbreaking plea as she added: “I just wish I’m allowed to say goodbye to my family and for them to see that I have a good death.”
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which was passed by the House of Commons in June, aims to give terminally ill people over the age 18 with just six months left to live the option to end their life early. It must be subject to approval by two doctors and an expert panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. Assisted dying is currently illegal in the UK and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
The bill is in the committee stage with around 1,000 amendments put forward by members of the House of Lords; a record number of proposed changes prompting fears they will hold up the historic law change.
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