Dame Esther has become a leading voice for the assisted dying bill in England and Wales (Picture: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire) Dame Esther Rantzen has died aged 86 after years of campaigning to implement assisted dying in the UK. The TV broadcaster was called the ‘most wonderful woman’ by her heartbroken family as they announced her death on Wednesday. In February Dame Rantzen has shared that the ‘new miracle drug’ she has been using for her cancer treatment has ‘stopped working’, adding: ‘I’m still here. Not for much longer.’ She continued in The Observer: ‘I’m definitely not going to live long enough to see the assisted dying bill become law. ‘So if my life becomes unbearably painful and I long for a quick, pain-free death, I will have to go to Dignitas in Switzerland, alone.’ She then aimed fire at the long list of amendments to the bill being proposed in the House of Lords, claiming: ‘The real motive behind these 1,000 amendments is not to improve the bill but to block it.’ This is a breaking news story… More to follow…