Older and Bolder: My A-Z of surviving almost everything

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But how soon, how late, I do not know. It does concentrate your mind to be told you've got Stage 4 lung cancer, you do think well wait a minute, I've got less time than maybe I had assumed.

But then I remember the wonderful people I’ve had the privilege of knowing: the Childline and Silver Line staff and volunteers, and Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved a generation of Czech Jewish children. We have to remember the proverb ascribed to Edmund Burke: ‘For the triumph of evil, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing.’ And women, of course. You were asked to apply for the job of BBC One Controller, which would have made you the first female controller of any television channel. Is it true that you turned it down out of fear? She is now at her New Forest home and ‘enjoying each day in a granular way that I never did when I was tearing around like a wasp in a jam jar’, she says. ‘Having stage 4 cancer does concentrate the mind, and makes each day even more precious.’ Patsy Wilcox had always refused to divorce her husband, but agreed when Rantzen became pregnant. Rantzen and Wilcox later married in December 1977.Mine, it turns out, are my close family and my garden. My beloved sister has flown from Australia to be with me for the most crucial hospital appointments. She’s quite stern with me when I don’t want to eat, or go for a walk down the lane. My children and grandchildren are a huge pleasure. Miriam, who has ME and lives at home with Rantzen, is clearly extremely proud of her mum. ‘It’s very moving when people helped by Childline or the Silver Line share what her work means to them,’ she says. ‘But my overriding gratitude is for everything that Mum has taught me about cultivating joy, and being creative and undaunted in the face of challenges.’ In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people. So you prioritise. Because as much as I love it and as much as I respect people who want to die working, for me I didn't want to die working."

Dame Esther released a statement earlier this year in which she confirmed her cancer diagnosis. It read: "I have decided not to keep this secret any more because I find it difficult to skulk around various hospitals wearing an unconvincing disguise, and because I would rather you heard the facts from me.A mother of three and grandmother of five, Rantzen was widowed in 2000 when she lost her husband of 23 years, Desmond Wilcox. In 2016, an endearing appearance on Celebrity First Dates featured a powerful moment when she talked about having ‘lots of people to do something with, but no one to do nothing with’. Of course, the treatments have improved, and technology has changed hugely. I’ve discovered a new condition that hits you during the months before your next scan, and until the results. It’s called ‘Scanxiety’. In Older & Bolder, you say ‘the killer question’ is, what do you do for fun? Because many older people sadly can no longer remember. What’s your own answer to that question? A graduate from Oxford, Esther Rantzen’s career in broadcasting began with BBC Radio as a sound effects assistant. From there she moved into television as a researcher/reporter for Braden’s Week and then in 1973 as producer/presenter of That’s Life, which ran for 21 years on BBC Television. Esther has made a number of pioneering programmes on subjects such as British women’s experience of childbirth, stillbirth, mental health and child abuse. In 1986 she invented the concept of ChildLine and chaired the charity for 20 years.

One of the worst things about this disease is how it can take down a person who seems utterly invincible. During Rantzen’s ‘wasp in a jam jar’ years, she was one of the most recognisable faces in the UK. In conversation with the author Rosamund Dean, who has written a book on her own cancer experience, Esther Rantzen shares words of wisdom. Many find a cancer diagnosis puts things in perspective, and provides fresh clarity on what’s important in life. What has it taught you about your priorities?In 1968, Rantzen started an affair with Desmond Wilcox, who was the head of her department and married to Rantzen's friend Patsy who also worked at the BBC. They decided to live together after many years. Senior editorial director Lorna Russell acquired world rights from Luigi Bonomi of LBA, with publication scheduled for 6th July 2023. When I was a child, I had a local GP who was on call day and night. Now I have a local surgery with a group of GPs, all excellent, and I don’t mind having telephone conversations instead of trips to the surgery. Even the way our courts treat child witnesses has improved, though not consistently and not enough. Juries used to be warned that children who disclosed sexual abuse should not be believed unless there is corroboration.