Dame Esther Rantzen, too frail to reach Dignitas, told her daughter: 'I didn't want you to see me like this'

Rebecca Wilcox, 46, appeared on Good Morning Britain on Friday — one month to the day since her mother died at her New Forest home on September 30 — to mark Childline's 40th anniversary. Dame Esther had booked a date at Dignitas but grew too physically frail to fly, meaning she never got to exercise the death she had planned.

Rebecca said Esther was "furious" the Terminally Ill Adults Bill was voted down, and felt unsupported by Andy Burnham.

Esther had paid and booked her Dignitas appointment but, as Rebecca put it, "we didn't know that was her last chance."

Rebecca recalled her mother drafting a letter that began: "'Dear all, I am dead' — is that enough?"