Dame Esther Rantzen addresses having less time to live in cancer battle update
Dame Esther Rantzen reveals how long she has left to live
That’s Life! presenter Dame Esther Rantzen admitted she had recently asked her oncologist “how long” she has left to live.
The One Show’s Alex Jones asked the 83-year-old regarding her lung cancer battle: “I think lots of people were really, really shocked when they heard about your diagnosis recently.
“Can I ask where you are now? People will want to know.”
“I want to know,” the former journalist and television presenter revealed.
She continued: “I did say to my oncologist, ‘When am I going to die?’
“And he said, ‘Sometime in the next 10 years. But how soon, how late? I do not know.’
“It does concentrate your mind to be told you’ve got stage four lung cancer.
“You do think, ‘Well, wait a minute, I’ve got less time than maybe I had assumed,’ so you prioritise.
“Because as much as I love it and as much as I respect people who wanted to die working, for me, I didn’t want to die working.”
Esther is best known for presenting the popular BBC series That’s Life! for more than two decades.
She was also a respected journalist and broadcaster who founded Childline, which helps young children across the UK.
Later in the interview, Alex moved onto the subject of Esther’s book, Older and Bolder.
“I can hear your voice when you read it,” Alex commented as Dame Esther laughed.
The One Show host went on: “And it’s quite a strict voice telling you how to do life.
“Have you always been bold? Or are you bolder because you’re older?”
“I suppose I have always been bold,” Esther replied. “Somebody suggested it to me, and writing is quite isolating, but if it’s an A to Z, it can be very short.
“Like, F for feet – treasure them while you can still reach them! That’s all I wanted to say about feet.
“I don’t expect people to follow my advice unless they fancy it, and I don’t expect people to agree with me, but I must say when I read it myself, I agreed with every word.”
The One Show airs weekdays from 7pm on BBC One.
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