Dame Esther Rantzen has issued a heartbreaking health update and revealed that her time is "extremely limited" as she continues to live with lung cancer. The TV legend was diagnosed with stage four of the disease in January 2023 and has been undergoing experimental medication, though she is no longer receiving any treatment. The 85-year-old has now shared: "Last week was the third anniversary of my diagnosis with stage four lung cancer, and to my astonishment, thanks to one of the new miracle drugs, I’m still here."

Writing in The Observer, Esther sadly added: "Not for much longer. The drug has stopped working now, and a scan next week will reveal how far my disease has spread." The mum of three then shared her plea for the assisted dying bill, which she has long advocated for, to be legalised for terminally ill adults in England and Wales, and disclosed her plan to die "alone".

The veteran presenter penned: "I’m definitely not going to live long enough to see the assisted dying bill become law – so if my life becomes unbearably painful and I long for a quick, pain-free death, I will have to go to Dignitas in Switzerland, alone."

Dame Esther has been a supporter of the cause and  urgently pleaded with MPs to back the Assisted Dying Bill, which was debated through Parliament in November.

At the time, the terminally ill star said: "What breaks my heart is the tragic consequence if, at the end of their debate on November 29, MPs vote against any change in the law.

"Not that it would affect me personally, because the truth is, any change in the law would not come in time for me. But for the hundreds of thousands of other terminally ill people who will have to suffer over the next decade, which is the length of time Parliament would no doubt wait before they approach this sensitive subject again."

Speaking on Good Morning Britain, she shared: "I'm not afraid of death, but I am afraid of dying badly. I'm making arrangements because it's the only way I can have an assisted death to go to by myself to Zurich, to Dignitas.

In a heartbreaking moment, she told presenter Kate Garraway: "I just wish I was allowed to say goodbye to my family and for them to see that I have a good death."

She went on: "What makes me sad, Kate, is that some disabled people think that it will apply to them, well, it can't, it won't, unless they're terminally ill with six months or less to live! Please, House of Lords, give us terminally ill patients the hope, the choice that if life gets unbearable, they can ask for help."