Dame Esther Rantzen said she has plans to go to Dignitas if the pain from her lung cancer becomes "unbearable". The Childline founder issued a heartbreaking plea as the former BBC presenter says she's "rapidly running out of time" as she hit out at the House of Lords for delaying the assisted dying bill.

The 85 year old presenter has been a vocal advocate for assisted dying since being diagnosed with a terminal form of the disease in 2023. She is explained that she is contemplating ending her life at the Swiss clinic should her health take a turn and become too painful.

Esther told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "I am still planning to go alone to Dignitas if my life becomes unbearable. Even if the new Bill became Law, it could not apply to me because I am rapidly running out of time.

"But I really feel our law makers will be letting down generations of terminally ill patients in the future if they fail to reform the current cruel, messy, criminal law."

The terminally ill adults (End of Life) bill was passed by the House of Commons last June but has been held up in the Lords, where peers have tabled more than 1,000 amendments.

It will fail if it is not given final assent prior to the King's Speech in May – although campaign group Dying in Dignity has launched a petition to make sure the Government allows enough time to ensure that the public's wishes are carried out.

Esther said: "I wish this petition every success, and I hope the House of Lords are paying attention to it."

Her comments come after the presenter said she does not have “much longer” to live because a drug she has been taking since 2024 has stopped working.

*** Ensure our latest showbiz headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings. ***

She wrote in a piece for The Observer, saying: “To my astonishment, thanks to one of the new miracle drugs, I’m still here. Not for much longer.

“The drug has stopped working now, and a scan next week will reveal how far my disease has spread.”

The veteran TV star continued: “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.”

Esther first shared her lung cancer diagnosis in January 2023, and revealed a few months later that it had progressed to stage four.