Dame Esther Rantzen wants "caviar and champagne" before dying at Dignitas

Dame Esther Rantzen has revealed she would like a final dinner of caviar and champagne before her death - but not for the reasons you might think.

Since being diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2023, Dame Esther has campaigned for a parliamentary debate and a free vote to legalise assisted dying with "built-in precautions to protect the interests of the person". The 83-year-old founder of Childline joined the Swiss-assisted dying company, Dignitas, as a precautionary measure.

Speaking to LBC on Monday, Dame Esther outlined her preparations for her death should she go ahead with Dignitas.

She said: "I’d like to fly off to Zurich with my nearest and dearest. Have a fantastic dinner the night before. I’d love caviar, if possible, and the fact that it doesn’t always agree with me doesn’t matter, does it? I could even have champagne, which I’m deeply allergic to. Then the next day, go to this rather unappealing place where they do it.

"Listen to a favourite piece of music, say goodbye to everybody. Tell them to cheer up. I’m meeting my late husband, my departed dog and my mother at the pearly gates. Hold up my hand for an injection or open my mouth for a rather disgusting medication.

"I’ve got an amazing family and a group of friends and colleagues. So I’d like to say goodbye fairly gracefully, as much as I can muster, and then go, that’s what I’d like."

Dame Esther, from Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, said the laws surrounding assisted dying are a "mess at the moment" as her family could be accused of murder if they travelled with her to Dignitas.

The former journalist and television presenter emphasised the importance of “individual choice” if her suffering from cancer becomes “too great”.

"As I have terminal cancer, it is a possibility that my life will become too painful, that my suffering will be too great," she said. "Even with the great palliative care skills that exist in this country and in my local hospice they won’t be able to help me and I want to die.

"What we need is for people to have individual choice, at that moment, which is literally life and death."

Dame Esther, along with the Daily Express and the campaign group Dignity in Dying, launched a petition demanding a parliamentary vote on the subject, which amassed 120,000 signatures in about three weeks.

Tearful LBC presenter Carol Vorderman also gave her support, saying she would also go to Dignitas if she had a terminal condition.

She said: "Now obviously Dame Esther Rantzen has created many headlines quite rightfully with this topic - and there are different laws in different lands about this right for assisted dying and I want to know your experiences.

"I am going to tell you about my family and I want to tell you something that I haven't shared with many until now. And its how I have already chosen, just like Dame Esther, that if the situation is thus that I am given a diagnosis of a terminal illness then I will choose to go abroad and die that way.

"With dignity and not subject myself and my family to the only pathway that is available in the UK."