Dame Esther Rantzen is no longer responding to a cancer treatment that once gave her hope, her daughter Rebecca Wilcox has revealed.
The 84-year-old broadcaster was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023 and, at one point, was given just weeks to live.
However, she later shared that an “amazing” new drug had been keeping the disease “at bay.”
Speaking on 5 News, Wilcox confirmed the treatment is no longer effective.
When asked if her mother’s condition had improved, she admitted: “I really wish that was true, but I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”
Dame Esther and Wilcox have been vocal advocates for legalising assisted dying in the UK.
The Childline founder had previously considered traveling to Switzerland’s Dignitas clinic to end her life, but her daughter shared that her health has now made that option impossible.
She said: “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.”
Last May, Dame Esther acknowledged that while her treatment had prolonged her life, she knew it wouldn’t be effective indefinitely.
She told the Sunday Times newspaper: “It doesn’t cure it, it delays it — and at some point, it will stop working.
“But I have scans to see if it’s still working and at the moment it is. I’m awfully glad I put in the tulips now. I’m having to make the same decision about my birthday [June 22] — I didn’t think I’d ever be 84 and now it looks like I might be.
“I’m keeping everything crossed for that.”
Then in September, Dame Esther admitted she was doing "much better" than she expected.
“I'm much better than I thought I would be, because I've got one of these amazing new drugs which seems to be holding the cancer at bay, to my surprise,” she shared on Lorraine.
Then in November, Dame Esther said she was “absolutely thrilled” at the result of the historic vote for assisted dying, and spoke of future generations being spared the “ordeals” currently suffered.
