Their Story Their Voice
Their Story Their Voice
Dame Esther Rantzen: Fighting for a Kinder World for All Ages
In today's mini episode, I delved into the inspiring life and work of Dame Esther Rantzen, a prominent British TV presenter, journalist, and social activist. Known for her influential activism, she has made incredible strides in supporting vulnerable groups. From founding Childline in 1986, a vital support hotline for children, to creating Silver Line in 2013, a lifeline for the elderly, her contributions have been nothing short of transformative
Please note transcription accuracy may vary.
Below are links to the materials mentioned in this episode:
https://www.childline.org.uk/about/about-childline/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/new-stories/esther-rantzen/how-we-did-it_1.shtml
https://www.thesilverline.org.uk/who-we-are/our-people/
http://www.dignitas.ch/?lang=en
Music by:
(Neffex - A year ago)
(Neffex - dont want to let myself go)
Hi, hi, hi. Hope you're good. Another really quick mini episode. I'm going to try my best to make this as quick as possible. This episode is about someone who is still alive and I wanted to hopefully approach this with kindness and compassion. I will give a quick rundown on why this person has shown inspirational kindness, thank you very much, Harry. Because it was because of you I looked into her a bit more and chose her. So I'm just going to start. The person I've chosen for this Monday is Dame Esther Rantzen. She is mainly known in the United Kingdom. She's a British TV presenter, journalist and social activist in this country she's most known for a show she presented in 1973 to 1994 called This Life, maybe you haven't heard of it, but during its time it had over 18 million viewers. I'm going to be honest, I did watch an episode that aired in 1981 and it was very quintessentially British. It's really cute, slightly ridiculous, all in one, it was really cute and I had to remember this was 30 years ago and times have changed a lot since then. Right, so the reason I actually chose her was not because of her as a TV presenter, although that was back in the 70s when she started and as a woman, I can't imagine how that must have been hard for her. The reason I chose her is because of an experience a friend of mine went through recently and highlighted the works that she's been doing. But I'm going to rewind back to the early days of her social activism. In 1986, she founded Childline. I remember Childline, not from 1986, but I remember her coming to my school and doing a She did, I think it was just a talk, a little speech, um, during one of our assemblies about ChildLine and what it meant and why it was important to children. ChildLine. is an anonymous free 24 7 telephone hotline aimed to support children living in crises. Nearly 18 years on, it's now part of the N-S-P-C-C, which stands for National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 2013, she then founded another charity based telephone hotline called Silver Line. This. Silver line should give it away. This was aimed to support the elderly. She has spoken out publicly about the loss of her husband later in life and the overwhelming loneliness she felt and she just wanted people to know that you're not alone. There is support out there, and she just wanted to highlight the forgotten ageing generation. I think that was mainly highlighted during the pandemic. But she's been an advocate for the elderly since 2013. In 2022, Silverline became part of Age UK. Age UK is a charity that we have in the United Kingdom that is there to support the vulnerable and the elderly they have volunteers. I remember during the pandemic. That you could apply to actually help out. So, delivering food to the elderly, like just delivering it to their doorstep, just being on the other end of the phone in case they just wanted someone to talk to. Really, such a supporter of Age UK and the work that they do. Esther has been candid about her feelings about assisted suicide and Which is illegal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. There are countries in Europe and around the world where it is legal. I'm not going to list them off, but there are countries where it is legal. The ones that come to my head are is Western Australia, Switzerland, Canada and New Zealand. I'm not sure how many people listening have animals and have watched them decline due to health and age. I appreciate that not everyone will see this as champing an act of kindness but I know when one of my animals got old and I didn't want to let him go because he was my best friend and always call him my animal soulmate which 100 percent I do believe is a thing. In hindsight, he was suffering. And I just didn't want my heart to ache, which I knew it would. But the kindest thing I could have done for him at the time was to take him to the vet and let them put him down to stop his suffering. If you know, you know, fine to the non animal lovers out there. It's a thing. Our animals literally like our family. But that would have been the humane thing to do, for him. So why do animals get offered this, but humans don't get to choose the right on how they get to go? I've seen friends lose those they love, who've not wanted to be here anymore due to health reasons. Ultimately, I completely understand, everyone will have different opinions on this, religious reasons being one of them. And people have their own ideology. We, we can't all be the same. We all have different opinions. Whatever your views are on euthanasia, I hope her activism for vulnerable people shows her legacy as an inspirational person who has done all these things from a place of kindness. Dame Esther Rantzen is currently undergoing treatment for stage 4 lung cancer and is campaigning for the law to be changed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to allow for assisted suicide. be kind to others, and most importantly, be kind to yourself.
