Three years after bravely going public with the news that she had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, while at the same time expressing her determination to change the laws around assisted dying, it was announced on Wednesday that the redoubtable broadcaster and campaigner Esther Rantzen has finally succumbed to the disease aged 86.
How typical that the former That’s Life star should use her own circumstances as a springboard to campaign on behalf of others. While her dying wish, supported by the Express with the Give Us Our Last Rights campaign, has not yet come to pass, Dame Esther succeeded in putting the debate around end of life care back on the table.
For that vital intervention, and for the vim and vigour with which she pursued it, when no one would have blamed her had she wished to withdraw from public life altogether, she deserves our profound gratitude. Campaigners have not yet given up their battle and the hope remains that Dame Esther’s courage will one day be rewarded with a much-needed change in the law.
But using her own terminal diagnosis to campaign for better deaths for others is just one aspect of an extraordinary legacy that encompasses the foundation of both Childline, aimed at protecting the youngest in society from abuse and neglect, and Silverline, which focussed on the welfare of our oldest citizens. Through them, she changed countless life and undoubtedly saved them too.
She really was a remarkable woman and, as is sometimes said, they really broke the mould when they created her. As our hearts go out to Dame Esther’s family and friends and we mourn her passing, we can also celebrate her many achievements in making Britain a safer and more compassionate country. That really was a life.
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