Vanessa Feltz broke down in tears during an emotional chat with Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter.
Rebecca Wilcox appeared on Vanessa’s Talk TV show and spoke about her mother’s stage-four lung cancer battle. Dame Esther has been open about wanting to choose when to end her life, saying it would give her “confidence” and ensure her death is “dignified”.
Rebecca revealed that Dame Esther has signed up with the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland, reports OK! She said on TalkTV: “Mum’s ideal death, my ideal death that I imagine, I share this with many people, would be to be in bed surrounded by my loved ones.
READ MORE:Dame Esther Rantzen, 83, will go to Dignitas to help her die if latest treatment fails
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“Take a very gentle cocktail of whatever it may be, and I know I’m simply [saying] buying the medicine here, but then to gently drift off holding their hands. Who wouldn’t hold that? Who instead would want to be in writhing agony for possibly months? “.
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
Vanessa, 62, who is a friend of Dame Esther’s family, was visibly moved and shed tears. “Rebecca, thank you very much, and give mummy all my love and a big kiss from me please,” she said.
Dame Esther has been talking about her tough fight with cancer on BBC Radio 4’s Today show. She said: “It’s a constant background to everything I do. I’m watching the spring flowers come out, thinking: ‘This is probably my last spring.’ When I talk to my grandchildren when they come and visit me, I’m very aware these moments are precious.”
(Image: TalkTV)
She also spoke about wanting to be in control of her own life, saying: “They may be the last memories they have of me. My own death is constantly in my mind. It would give me so much confidence if I could also know that however the illness progresses, whatever pain it causes, wherever it strikes me next, I will still have the choice of a pain-free, dignified private death surrounded by the people I love.”
Esther isn’t trying to make everyone agree with her. She just wants to talk about all the issues because we now know what people think and we’ve got facts from other countries.
She’s decided to join the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland for assisted dying. But she’s worried because her family might get into trouble with the law if they go with her. In England and Wales, it’s against the law to help someone end their life, because of the Suicide Act from 1961.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
