Dame Esther, who lives in the New Forest, is about to undergo another scan and says she may not have long to live.
The veteran broadcaster has also accused the House of Lords of trying to prevent the assisted dying bill from becoming law.
The bill was passed by the House of Commons in June 2025 but has stalled in the Lords, where a handful of peers have tabled more than 1,000 amendments. The bill will fail if it is not given final assent before the King’s Speech in May.
Now Dame Esther, 85, has again said she plans to end her life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland if her condition becomes “unbearably panful”.
Campaigners demonstrate their support for the assisted dying bill (Image: PA)
Writing in the latest edition of The Observer, she said: “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.
“Not for much longer. The drug has stopped working now and a scan this week will reveal how far my disease has spread.
“I’m definitely not going to live long enough to see the assisted dying bill become law.
“Some members of the House of Lords are doing their very best to prevent any change in the current messy, cruel criminal law. Which means they will force more families to watch terminally ill people they love and care for spend hours, sometimes days and weeks, dying slowly in agony, when even the best palliative care fails to alleviate their pain.”
Dame Esther Rantzen presented the consumers affairs show That’s Life, which ran for 21 years (Image: PA)
Dame Esther adds: “No change in the law can come in time for me. I always knew that.
“But on the third anniversary of my diagnosis all I ask is that future generations be given the confidence and hope of a fast, pain-free death.”
Dame Esther is best known for presenting the BBC show That’s Life! and founding the Childline charity in 1986.
Under the bill, terminally ill people with six months to live would be given the option of ending their life early. But critics claim it needs more amendments to protect vulnerable individuals.