Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter addresses heartbreaking pain of watching father die

Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter Rebecca Wilcox has said that her memories of her late father Desmond were "destroyed" after watching him die. She made the revelation while appearing on Good Morning Britain to discuss her mother's assisted dying campaign.

"We would want mum to have the option of assisted dying so that our memories of her are not replaced by this traumatic awful demise," she explained. "It’s all about her for us."

"Yes our memories would be destroyed and they were destroyed with my father. I can’t remember the last time I spoke to him but I remember in vivid detail everything that happened in the hospital before he died," she recalled.

Explaining the reason for their mother's campaign, she continued: "Mum has been this person who has changed laws and who has campaigned for other people. This is the first campaign really that is about her and she wants to have a dignified death that reflects a dignified life.

"A bad death is something that a patient doesn’t choose so that is what we are talking about. We are talking about a good death for a patient that has chosen their death. And that death can be anything you want it to be. Doesn’t everyone want to die in bed?" She asked.

Grandmother-of-five Esther is spearheading the UK campaign to legalise assisted dying after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in January last year.

She is demanding MPs get off the fence on assisted dying after a major inquiry failed to recommend urgent action.

Yesterday, (February 28) she said she was “disappointed and disheartened” that the Commons Health and Social Care Committee did not call for a debate despite hearing compelling evidence of the need for change.

“I am very disheartened indeed there is no recommendation that there is an urgent need for the current law to be changed because it puts loving families at risk and that therefore there must be a debate in Parliament, followed by a free vote as soon as possible.

“It’s as if, because this is an emotional subject, they are frightened to recommend Parliament should talk about it,” she said.

A Daily Express petition, backed by the Childline founder and campaign group Dignity in Dying, has gathered more than 130,000 signatures in a clear display of overwhelming public support.

The inquiry was conducted by 11 cross-party MPs. It received more than 68,000 public responses and almost 400 written submissions after launching in December 2022. Among them was a powerful account from cancer patient David Minns, who launched the Daily Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade two years ago.

A report on the year-long examination published today noted that independent polls have shown up to 80 per cent of people are in favour of permitting assisted dying.

It described how medicine cannot relieve all pain and the current law is unclear, leaving terminally ill people and their families in turmoil. It concluded that legislation was likely to be passed in at least one part of the UK or Crown Dependencies “in the near future” - effectively creating a postcode lottery for access to a dignified death.

Good Morning Britain is on ITV weekdays at 6am.