Esther Rantzen feeling 'much better' than she thought amid cancer diagnosis thanks to new drug

Dame Esther Rantzen is feeling "much better" than she thought she would be amid her terminal lung cancer diagnosis.

The 84-year-old TV presenter was given the diagnosis last year, but the star admitted her cancer is being kept "at bay" for now thanks to a new drug.

Speaking on ITV's 'Lorraine', she said: "I'm much better than I thought I would be, because I've got one of these amazing new drugs which seems to be holding the cancer at bay, to my surprise."

Esther has been campaigning to give people greater end-of-life choices in the UK, and she is hopeful of change even if it doesn't happen in her own lifetime.

She said: "Even if it doesn't happen in my time, I do hope that other people in my situation will be given the choice.

"That's all I ask, to shorten their death, if that's what they want."

Esther previously met with Labour leader and now-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to discuss a free vote by MPs on assisted dying.

Ahead of the election, which saw him become PM, Starmer told Esther that he was "personally committed" to changing the laws surrounding assisted dying.

And now, Esther is "impressed" that Starmer, who has vowed to try to get a vote on legalising assisted dying before Christmas, has remembered their conversation.

She said: "I'm very, very impressed that given all the challenges you know, national and international, he remembers the conversation we had before the election, in which he made it clear that this is something he does feel very strongly about, that the law at the moment is unsatisfactory.

"Being a lawyer himself, I think he thinks it's important that laws should be just and fair and clear, which this one is not."