When Dame Esther Rantzen, the journalist and TV presenter, was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in January 2023, she assumed she’d “fall off [her] perch in weeks”
03:54, 29 Nov 2025
Dame Esther Rantzen has made a sad admission(Image: Getty Images)
Dame Esther Rantzen is celebrating Christmas early with family this year — in case she “doesn’t make” the real day.
The journalist and campaigner says she continues to astound herself at making milestones following her incurable lung cancer diagnosis nearly three years ago. The grandmother of five has been battling to legalise assisted dying since her bombshell news but there have been delays on the Assisted Dying Bill and, earlier this year, Dame Esther, 85, said she believes she won’t see it passed in her lifetime.
And now the veteran TV presenter, who founded the charity Childline in 1986, has arranged to have her Christmas early in the fear she might not be alive on December 25. She said: “This year I am planning an “official” Christmas with my children and five grandchildren, slightly ahead of the real Christmas so that there will be more chance that I am actually alive to enjoy it with them. Although I live alone, Rebecca (Dame Esther’s daughter) will come and decorate the house beautifully, as she has done every year with all my old baubles and bits of tinsel.”
Dame Esther said she didn’t expect to live for any more Christmases following her cancer diagnosis in January 2023. It quickly became Stage 4, and then her family told the press medication was no longer working as the mum of three wasn’t responding to it.
READ MORE: BBC Morning Live doctor says three symptoms could be sign of ‘worrying problem’ being seen ‘more and more’READ MORE: Prostate cancer experts explain REJECTING plan to offer test to at-risk UK menDame Esther and her family, including daughter Rebecca (pictured), will celebrate Christmas early(Image: Getty Images Europe)The TV legend remains optimistic (Image: Steve Reigate)
But, even though the TV legend has celebrated two further Christmases, she is now fearful this will be her last — if she makes the next four weeks that is. In a candid interview with The Times, Dame Esther said: “When I was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2023, I did not expect to last until the next Christmas, so the fact that I am still here and looking forward to this one is a wonderful surprise.
“Right now I am not receiving any treatment, which was my doctor’s decision, as the side-effects outweigh the benefits. So the cancers are progressing but, according to my most recent scan, very slowly. Incidentally, I have also discovered a mental health issue I never expected, scanxiety.
“Since I have no idea what is actually happening inside my own body, but every scan, every three or four months, carries with it the possibility of bad news, as the date approaches my anxiety levels rise — and we cancer patients have christened it scanxiety.”
Dame Esther founded Childline and regularly thanks its volunteers, such as here in 2010 in Birmingham(Image: BPM )
The journalist, who in addition to Childline, founded The Silver Line to support older people, continues to campaign to legalise assisted dying. The Assisted Dying Bill was, in June, approved by MPs and is now with the House of Lords.
Dame Esther said her fight has given her — and thousands of other terminally ill people — renewed hope. The gran, originally from Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, continued: “When I started this journey, as they say on Strictly, I assumed that I’d fall off my perch in weeks, not months, let alone years. So I didn’t plan any treats to look forward to, the way I always have done in the past.
“But given that I may last longer than I ever expected, I have just had great fun ordering tulip bulbs for the spring as well as making sure I have a turkey for our family Christmas. If I am still around for the real Christmas Day and new year, I look forward to relaxing, quiet days at home, spiced up with plenty of exuberant Zoom and phone calls.”
