Facing her own battle, Esther Rantzen makes emotional plea to MPs: “Give the terminally ill the confidence and hope they deserve”

Dame Esther Rantzen has called on MPs to let terminally ill people like her “face the future with confidence and hope”, as the assisted dying Bill returns to the Commons on Friday. The veteran broadcaster, 84, will watch from home as the landmark legislation undergoes several more hours of scrutiny and votes on amendments. In a message to MPs who will soon decide whether the Bill should continue on its journey to becoming law, she said: “Please remember the vast majority of the public urgently need your vote.

“All we ask is that the law is reformed so that terminally ill patients like us are given the choice. Many could face the future with confidence and hope if they knew that if their lives became unbearable they could ask for assistance to shorten their deaths. Please, please allow terminally ill patients the right to choose. And reform the current cruel, messy, criminal law so that terminally ill patients can choose to ask for the assistance they need to die a pain-free death in their own homes, surrounded by those they love the most.”

A second lengthy report stage debate on amendments is due to take place on Friday, with votes on possible changes.

The third reading vote, which will decide whether the legislation proceeds to the House of Lords, is expected to take place next Friday.

More than a dozen MPs have publicly indicated plans to change their votes, with more appearing to have been swayed against the Bill than for it — however, the result is too close to call. Supporters remain cautiously optimistic that the Bill will retain majority backing.

Dame Esther, who has stage four lung cancer, knows that any change in the law would come too late for her. But she is campaigning on behalf of other terminally ill people who face an uncertain future, like Celia Forsyth, 64.

Former palliative care nurse Celia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 and suffered a recurrence eight years later.

She now has secondary, incurable breast cancer which has spread to her lungs. Celia, who had a mastectomy after the recurrence, is being treated with a hormone blocker and a targeted therapy called palbociclib.

The drugs are keeping the disease stable for now and she has regular scans every three months. However, she said: “They will not cure it.”

The mum-of-two said she is “trying to enjoy life and not think about it too much” but it would bring her great comfort if assisted dying were legalised.

Celia said: “It would be good to know that if I am really suffering at the end, and it is the end, there would be the option to just go to sleep if they couldn’t control my pain or any of my other symptoms.

“I just don’t want to be forced to suffer at the end of my life. I love life, I don’t want to die, but I want a good death — we all do.”

Celia, of Long Eaton in the East Midlands, worked as a district nurse for around 13 years, with duties including supporting patients at the end of their lives. She then worked in a hospice for 11 years.

She said: “I saw the good care there was — brilliant care, kindness and compassion, and medications to help.

“For most people you can keep the pain controlled, hopefully the nausea. But there are people for whom nothing will touch the pain, and they are ready to go.

“I do feel it has to be very strict, you have to follow all the guidelines and checks. But it’s good to know it’s there if you need it and are mentally competent to make that choice.”

Celia’s strong support for assisted dying was also influenced by watching her mother suffer before she died two years ago, aged 94 with suspected bowel cancer.

The former nurse said: “I’ve seen a lot of people die in my work but she had the most horrendous death.

“She was actually begging to die in the end and she was somebody who wanted to live — like me. Her body just kept going.

“She was a skeleton basically. She had a will to live and a strong heart and lungs, but her body had died around her. Her legs and arms went black before she died.”

Celia said she was pleased that the Bill is encouraging people to talk more about the importance of good palliative care, which should “go hand-in-hand” with assisted dying.

Speaking directly to MPs whose votes may determine the manner of her death, Celia added: “If we’re not having a good death, it’s nice to know [the option of assisted dying] is there.

“There are 20 people that suffer every day as they die with a terminal illness. It is happening, I’ve seen it, and that could be my future.”

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, the Bill’s sponsor, has urged colleagues to support amendments that would make the legislation stronger and more effective.

She highlighted changes that would ban the advertising of assisted dying services and require the government to publish a report on the state of palliative care.

In a letter to MPs, Ms Leadbeater said: “I have worked with colleagues on both sides of the debate and I believe there is wide consensus that if assisted dying does become legal, we wouldn’t want to see it promoted through advertising. There is also widespread consensus and support for improvements in palliative care.

“It is not a choice between assisted dying or palliative care — I firmly believe we should take a holistic approach to choice and care for terminally ill people.

“All the polling indicates that a substantial majority of our constituents support reforming the law to give choice at the end of life and to address the injustices and lack of compassion in the status quo.

“And one area where supporters and opponents, both in Parliament and in the country, agree is that if we are to pass this legislation it should be the best and safest Bill possible. I’m confident it can and will be.”

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said safety was woven into the legislation and “momentum for change has never been stronger”.

She added: “MPs face a choice — standing with the huge public support for giving safe, compassionate choice to people in the final stages of terminal illness, or endorsing the continuation of a cruel, dangerous and heartless status quo.

“As they decide, they should put the views of dying people like Dame Esther Rantzen and Celia at the heart of the debate, who are calling out for compassion and choice.

“Patients can already make other kinds of decisions that result in their death — refusing life sustaining treatment, or by Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking which can be a horrendous way to die, with none of the same oversight that the assisted dying bill contains.

“On Friday in Westminster we move one step closer to giving people hope that they will have true choice at the end of their lives.”