Esther's final legacy shelved by Starmer

I SENT my dear friend Dame Esther Rantzen a private text yesterday. I didn't know if she'd be able to read it.

- Vanessa Feltz

The media was buzzing with her daughter Rebecca Wilcox's heart-breaking news that the "miracle" drug keeping her mother alive is no longer working and she is now too ill to travel to end her life, as she wanted to, at Swiss clinic Dignitas. Swiftly, I received a response five kisses. I know she summoned the strength to send them herself. Esther is not the woman to relinquish control of her phone, even in extremis.

Most of us muddle through our lives, struggling for equilibrium, focused on keeping ourselves and our families afloat. Occasionally we spare a passing thought, or a few quid for others, but in the main our daily energy is expended on our own personal survival.