'NOW FUTURE GENERATIONS WILL BE SPARED ORDEALS WE SUFFER'

ASSISTED dying is a step closer to being legalised following a major victory for Dame Esther Rantzen and the campaigning Daily Express.

- Hanna Geissler

MPs voted 330 to 275 to allow a landmark bill on the issue to proceed beyond a second reading for the first time in history. The terminally ill veteran broadcaster said she has hope "future generations will be spared the ordeals we have to suffer at the moment".

Dame Esther, 84, said she was "absolutely thrilled" as she paid tribute to the hard work of Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and her supporters in bringing the bill before MPs.

She added: "A special thanks to the Daily Express for their brilliant campaign and to all the Express readers who have supported it. Well done! "But don't give up now, we will continue to need you over the next year or so until it actually becomes law. This is the first hurdle, but there will be many more to come." It will now be scrutinised line-by-line by a committee before a third reading in the Commons and, if it passes that too, it will go on to further votes in the Lords.

However, the Childline founder said that if the bill did proceed all the way to becoming law, it was still likely to come too late for her.

She said: "It doesn't really change my situation because it's going to take probably almost two years for it to change the law, and I'd be astonished if the drug I'm on manages to extend my life that far." Adding that she would likely have to go to Dignitas in Switzerland, she said: "I will do so in the knowledge that future generations will be spared the ordeals we have to suffer at the moment, as long as the third reading is voted through."

Crucial

The That's Life! legend and lifelong campaigner has fought to keep the issue at the top of the political agenda since revealing her stage four lung cancer diagnosis last year.