DAME ESTHER'S PLEA: THIS CRUELTY MUST STOP

TV star demands changes to assisted dying law: "It's our life, and it will be our death'

- Giles Sheldrick, Michael Knowles

AME Esther Rantzen says the "cruelty must stop" as MPs from rival parties backed her call for there to be a free vote on legalising assisted dying.

The campaigner said she has heard tales of "intolerable suffering" since revealing she has joined Dignitas.

Dame Esther has Stage 4 lung cancer and her stand on behalf of people living with terminal illness left her postbag "overflowing with heartfelt pleas to reform the law".

The Childline founder and TV presenter writes in the Daily Express today: "Nobody would impose it. All we ask is the choice. It's our life, and it will be our death."

She had not expected to see Christmas, following her diagnosis early this year, and is awaiting scan results to see if a potential "miracle" drug is keeping her disease at bay.

Dame Esther, 83, said on the current illegal status of assisted dying in the UK: "This cruelty must stop.

The current law was intended to protect the vulnerable, to stop them being pressured into suicide.

"And of course precautions are vital. But bad cases make bad laws, and in trying to prevent crime the law at the moment denies us the most valuable freedom of all, the freedom to choose when to end our own suffering."

The mother of three said she might travel to Dignitas's assisted dying clinic in Switzerland to spare her family the possible trauma of witnessing "a bad death".

Her daughter Rebecca, 43, said the pair are so determined to end the ban on assisted dying they may lobby their MP Michael Gove at home during the festive season.