The daughter of Dame Esther Rantzen, Rebecca Wilcox, has shared an update about her mum’s health ahead of her birthday.

Dame Esther, 85, was first diagnosed with lung cancer back in 2023. In May of the same year, she revealed that her cancer had reached stage 4 and she was on a new form of medication.

The TV star, who is a supporter of Assisted Dying, then stepped out of the limelight to focus on her health. And recently, her daughter Rebecca opened up about her mum’s condition.

Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter shares update

On Monday (June 8) Rebecca Wilcox appeared on Channel 5’s chat show Vanessa, hosted by Vanessa Feltz.

Issuing an update on her mum Esther, Rebecca said: “It’s her birthday coming up. She’s going to be 86, which is brilliant. She’s as astonished as anybody that she’s still here.

“We are so grateful. She was diagnosed three years ago with terminal stage four lung and breast cancer, so every day is a wonderful miracle and we really are cherishing it.

“We are just so grateful to have her here.”

Rebecca also revealed that Esther still has a passion for gardening. She shared: “Her garden is her passion. It is gorgeous.

“She’s an early adopter of rewilding. Monty Don has nothing on her. They built this garden from nothing. It was a dilapidated farm. I got married there.”

Vanessa then asked if it was true that Esther ran through the garden naked. Rebecca joked that it happens most weekends, adding: “Nudity is her happy place.”

‘I will obviously keep battling’

Earlier this year, Dame Esther shared that the medication she had been taking was no longer working. As a result, she said she was “not going to live long enough to see the Assisted Dying Bill become law,” in the United Kingdom.

“I will obviously keep battling, not on my own behalf but on behalf of all the future generations that deserve a proper, compassionate, humanitarian bill,” she said during a pre-recorded segment on GMB.

“Doctors used to ease people out of life; that’s what we need, we need the opportunity to ask for assistance. Not to shorten our lives but to shorten our deaths.”

Read more: Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter issues heartbreaking end-of-life update on mum: ‘The treatments have stopped working’