Esther Rantzen’s daughter has shared a health update about her mother who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2023 and set to celebrate her 86th birthday in June
Dame Esther Rantzen‘s daughter Rebecca Wilcox has shared a health update ahead of her mother’s birthday, as she is set to turn 86 on June 22.
Dame Esther, 85, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in January 2023 has been an advocate for Assisted Dying for the past few years. Three years on from her diagnosis, Rebecca admitted that Dame Esther and the rest of their family is “astonished” she is still with them, and they are all “cherishing” every day.
“It’s her birthday coming up. She’s going to be 86 which is brilliant. She’s as astonished as anybody that she’s still here. We are so grateful.
“She was diagnosed three years ago with terminal stage four lung and breast cancer so every day is a wonderful miracle and we really are cherishing it. As you say, ‘every day you wake up still breathing…’ Its the same for a terminal diagnosis.
“We are just so grateful to have her here,” Rebecca said in an interview on Channel 5’s Vanessa.
When asked if Dame Esther still has quality of life, Rebecca revealed that the former That’s Life! presenter still found huge joy in her garden.
“Her garden is her passion. It is gorgeous. She’s an early adopter of rewilding – Monty Don has nothing on her. They built this garden from nothing. It was a dilapidated farm. I got married there.”
Vanessa asked if it was true that Dame Esther once frolicked nude in the garden, to which Rebecca jokingly said that it occurs most weekends, adding: “Nudity is her happy place.”
In early 2026, Dame Esther shared that the new treatment she had been receiving was no longer effective and she was “not going to live long enough to see the Assisted Dying Bill become law,” in the United Kingdom.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was passed by the House of Commons on June 20 last year, but it has been blocked from progressing by the Lords ever since, by a small minority who raised more than 1,200 amendments. One of these included the need for a pregnancy test for both men and women. The bill ran out last month after almost 17 months of debates.
In a pre-recorded message on Good Morning Britain, Dame Esther said in April that she would keep up the fight for as long as she lived, despite never being able to see it come to law: “I will obviously keep battling, not on my own behalf but on behalf of all the future generations that deserve a proper, compassionate, humanitarian bill.
“Doctors used to ease people out of life; that’s what we need, we need the opportunity to ask for assistance. Not to shorten our lives but to shorten our deaths.”
The Macmillan Support Line offers confidential support to people living with cancer and their loved ones. If you need to talk, call us on 0808 808 0000.
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