Dame Esther hands over the reins of ChildLine to her daughter

DAME Esther Rantzen has handed her role as President of ChildLine, the charity she founded in 1986, to her daughter as she is no longer well enough to fulfil her duties.

- Giles Sheldrick

The campaigner, 83, told how "terrific mother" Rebecca Wilcox, 43, will step into her shoes immediately and also train as a counsellor for the organisation.

It comes less than a fortnight after Dame Esther said "this is the Christmas I thought I wouldn't see", after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in January.

Paying tribute to the redoubtable activist, mum-of-two Rebecca said: "ChildLine has always been the other member of our family and I feel like I have grown up with it. In fact, it may have been the favourite sibling.

"My eldest son has never been interested or proud of anything I have ever done, but the other day he asked me when he could tell people I am going to do this and said, 'I am really proud of you, Mummy"."

Dame Esther was fronting consumer affairs show That's Life!, which ran for 21 years and drew audiences of 18 million, when she suggested to the BBC a show dedicated to preventing child abuse.

Insights

This inspired TV's Childwatch, leading to the creation of free, 24-hour helpline ChildLine which, after its launch, was immediately  swamped with 50,000 calls.

The 0800 1111 number was chosen as it was simple enough to be instantly memorable to children of five or six years old.