Dame Esther Rantzen dies aged 86: Family pays tribute to broadcaster and campaigner who will be remembered for her 'endless capacity for joy'

Broadcaster and campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen has died at the age of 86, her family said in a statement.The Childline founder passed away following a battle with lung cancer, first revealed in January 2023. Her relatives today paid tribute to the 'most wonderful mother' and 'cherished grandmother' who will be remembered for her 'endless capacity for joy'. Dame Esther revealed in December 2023 that she had joined Dignitas and would consider going there to end her life. Earlier this month, she said it was too late for her to 'buzz off' to the Swiss clinic as planned as she revealed her anguish over loved ones witnessing her suffering.She said in a statement that despite having 'spent the money and made the plans' to go to Dignitas, she was now 'too physically fragile to make the journey'.Dame Esther penned a poignant message before her death, her children revealed today. The message read: 'Dear Everybody, I am so sorry I cannot send you each individual thanks for the fun, the support and the help you have been to me. I have been immensely lucky in the friendship and the professional advice I have had from you which has enabled me to live such a long and happy life. Broadcaster and campaigner Dame Esther Rantzen has died at the age of 86, her family said in a statement Dame Esther with her husband Desmond Wilcox at the 53rd Bafta Film Award in 2000 'If any of you would like to donate something to charity in my name as a celebration of what we have had together, I do know that the Dignitas charity in Switzerland is facing serious challenges and would be very grateful. 'And the Oakhaven Hospice in Lymington has also been wonderful to me. And Cathy would like me to pay tribute to Cats Protection of course.'Sadly, all good things come to an end, as they say. So I particularly wanted to say goodbye and thank you so very, very much. Perhaps I will see you eventually, on the other side. I do hope so.With very good wishes, as ever, Esther.' A statement issued by her children, Miriam Wilcox, Rebecca Wilcox and Joshua Wilcox, today said: 'Our adored mother, Dame Esther Rantzen, died today. Her legacy of compassion and understanding will live on in her charities Childline and the Silverline, and through those of us who were lucky enough to love and be loved by her.'We are grateful she is finally at rest with her beloved husband, Desmond Wilcox, but we will miss her immeasurably. She was our sunshine. We will always remember her endless capacity for joy, her ability to comfort every heartache, her beautiful way with words and her expert guidance in all things.'She was the most wonderful mother to us three children and a cherished grandmother to her five treasured grandchildren. We have been so lucky for so long, no matter how much time we had with Mum it could be never be enough, but we are so grateful for our lives together.'Mum's work with charities and campaigning, particularly for children, older people, and the terminally ill, meant the world to her so thank you to everyone who has written to her, shared their stories with her over the years and worked alongside her.'We hope the humour, ingenuity and audacity she brought to her work may continue to inspire you as it will do us. We kindly ask that we are given privacy and time to grieve.'The Jewish star was diagnosed with lung cancer in January 2023 and was subsequently told there was no prospect of being cured.Dame Esther had said she did not think she would live long enough to turn 84, but defied doctors' expectations after being treated with an experimental drug. The presenter, who was made a dame in 2015, was best known as the face of long-running BBC show That's Life! and for launching the charity ChildLine.She had three children with her late producer husband Desmond Wilcox, who she had an affair with when he was her boss at the BBC.Esther Louise Rantzen was born in Berkhamsted, Hampshire, in June 1940, shortly after Britain's humiliating retreat from Dunkirk in the face of the Nazis' rampage through France.One of her earliest memories was of standing in her cot aged around 18 months listening to the wail of air raid sirens.When she was five, her parents - Harry and Katherine - decided to move the family, which included younger daughter Priscilla, back to the leafy suburbs of Hampstead in north London.During the war, Dame Esther's parents sponsored a Jewish boy who had fled Germany aged seven.When Dame Esther was 10, her father got a job with the United Nations in New York and so the family moved stateside for two years. Dame Esther Rantzen fronted That's Life from 1973 until the show came off air in 1994 Dame Esther Rantzen with her husband and their children Emily, joshua and Rebecca in 1986Dame Esther Rantzen at her home after being diagnosed with cancer Dame Esther at home in Hampshire with her children and grandchildrenOn their return, they lived again in Hampstead. Esther was educated at North London Collegiate, an elite private school for girls.Dame Esther remembered the excitement of being the first house on her street to get a television. It was banished to the hall as her parents believed television 'killed the art of conversation'. Instead it was enjoyed by the paper boy, who would spend hours watching it through their letterbox.The broadcaster described herself as a naughty child, a trait inherited from her mother. She recalled an occasion when she invited a friend who had 'an anarchist husband' to tea. When her mother entered the room and he didn't stand up she tipped his chair forward.Later in life Dame Esther said: 'The importance of family and hearth and home is central to Judaism and to me. 'My children will tell you I'm the archetypal Jewish mother. I have a little sign up in my house: 'Mirror mirror on the wall, I am my mother after all.''Dame Esther Rantzen on Good Morning Britain in 2020 Dame Esther Rantzen as a child. She spent two years living in America when she was young Dame Esther pictured right aged four with her younger sister Cilla and their golden retriever Polly, 1944 Esther Rantzen recording an episode of Wagoners' Walk in 1977Her father also encouraged the rule-breaker and expected her and her sister to 'have a career as if [they] were boys.'Encouraged to go to university, she won a place at Oxford, where she studied English and appeared in plays and revues. After graduating, Dame Esther got a job at the BBC in a radio sound effects department and then was taken on as a TV researcher.She was given her first role on screen by Canadian star Bernard Braden, who had his own programme, Braden's Week.But it was in 1973 that Dame Esther got her big break with the creation of That's Life! She was handpicked as the star of the new show by her future husband, who was head of general features at the BBC. Dame Esther and Wilcox met when she was on Braden's Week. The producer was married with three children but the pair could not help falling in love.Their marriage in 1977 was followed by consternation among BBC colleagues.Wilcox ended up resigning from his BBC job in 1980 amid accusations he had breached rules by employing his future wife.But the couple were devoted to each other, to the extent that Wilcox even converted to Judaism. The birth of their first daughter Emily in early 1978 was followed by the arrival of Rebecca in 1980 and then son Joshua in 1981. As for Dame Esther's career, it went from strength to strength. By the late 1970s, That's Life! was pulling in an incredible 15million viewers. One of That's Life!'s most iconic episodes came in the 1988 episode when hero stockbroker Sir Nicholas Winton was introduced to some of the people who he had saved from death in the Holocaust.In a moment that has been watched millions of times since, Dame Esther said: 'Is there anybody in our audience tonight who owes their life to Nicholas Winton? If so, can you stand up please.'After a short pause, four rows of middle-aged people stood up. All of them owed their lives to Sir Nicholas, who was knighted for his heroics in 2003.Sir Nicholas stood up, acknowledged them all and then sat down to wipe away tears.The hero had rescued 669 youngsters in Europe by organising Kindertransport trains that brought them to Britain before the outbreak of the Second World War.He also organised flights that brought children out of Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the conflict. By the 1990s, what had been the revolutionary formula of That's Life! looked tired. Amid dwindling viewing figures, the show was axed in 1994. Dame Esther had by then launched Childline, which grew out of 1986 programme Childwatch.This is a breaking news story. More to follow.