LONDON — The family of Dame Esther Rantzen called on Friday for swift implementation of England and Wales's assisted dying law, days after the broadcaster and campaigner died at 86 following a long battle with lung cancer.

Rantzen, who founded the children's charity ChildLine and presented the BBC's That's Life!, became one of the most prominent public advocates for a change in the law after her terminal diagnosis in 2023. She had revealed she joined the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and issued a farewell letter urging Parliament to act.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, championed by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, passed the House of Commons in 2025 and completed its passage through Parliament earlier this year. Implementation of the law, including safeguards and panel reviews, is scheduled over the coming period, campaigners at Dignity in Dying confirmed.

Tributes continued across British public life, with figures from broadcasting and charity praising Rantzen's decades of work on child protection, elder loneliness through her charity The Silver Line, and consumer rights. Dignity in Dying described her as instrumental in shifting public opinion on the issue.

Rantzen's daughter Rebecca Wilcox said in a statement: "My mother fought to the end so that others would have the choice she wanted. The greatest tribute we can pay her is to make this law work properly and compassionately."