TV star and Childline founder Dame Esther Rantzen previously revealed that her lung cancer was at stage four
08:25, 27 Feb 2026Updated 08:26, 27 Feb 2026
Dame Esther Rantzen has lung cancer(Image: Getty)
Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter admitted the family is “in denial” amid the star’s cancer diagnosis as she appeared on Good Morning Britain.
The Childline founder, 85, has been diagnosed with lung cancer and revealed in 2023 that it was stage four. She is a high-profile supporter of the assisted dying bill, and has previously shared that she has joined the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland.
Her daughter Rebecca Wilcox appeared on the ITV show on Friday (February 27) after a law to allow terminally ill adults the right to choose to end their lives was approved in Jersey, and shared an update about her mum.
Presenter Kate Garraway had asked after the star and Rebecca replied: “As a family, we’re great, because we live in denial about everything. I mean, who has cancer? No one has cancer.
Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter Rebecca Wilcox appeared on Good Morning Britain(Image: ITV screengrab)
“But obviously, seriously, it’s a really weird time. As anybody who knows, who has got someone that they adore, who has a terminal diagnosis. You just live in a state of anxiety between the scans.
“Mum is incredible. I don’t know how she’s doing it. She is surviving not only the cancer, but the treatments as well. She is obviously now palliative. The treatments have stopped working. And she is still going.”
She added that Dame Esther was “as cross as I am” over the fast that the assisted dying ill legislation appears likely to run out of time.
Kate’s fellow presenter Ranvir Singh asked: “She has said, I think, before, that she’s leaving the door open to perhaps going abroad should that awful moment, that crossroads come to her. And if this isn’t a law here, by that point, you know, going to Dignitas or somewhere like that, that’s still the case?”
“Absolutely,” said Rebecca. “I mean, we’re in this odd, privileged position, if that’s the word, whereby she can afford to have the death that she wants and deserves. She will pay £15,000 to go to Dignitas. She will go before she has to. She will go months before she would die here. And she will go alone, because we contacted a criminal solicitor. And we said, how likely is it that we’ll be investigated and prosecuted?
Ranvir Singh and Kate Garraway hosted Good Morning Britain(Image: ITV screengrab)
“And they said, because we have stuck our head above the parapet, because we have campaigned for other people for this, we knew it would never come in time for mum, we will be investigated as a family. I will possibly lose my enhanced DBS, which means my work with Childline, which is so important to me, and my counselling work will not go forward. I will possibly lose my job as a journalist.
“My brother’s job as a cardiologist might be in danger, and my sister’s job as well. And my mum doesn’t want that for us, so she is not allowing us to go with her.”
“So she goes alone to die in Switzerland, and she does not deserve that,” she added.
“It’s utterly heartbreaking,” said Kate. “And you are such a passionate campaigner, not just for your mum, but for all the hundreds of thousands of people who absolutely back your position.”
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Good Morning Britain airs on ITV from 6am
