**_If you are experiencing feelings of distress and isolation, or are struggling to cope, The Samaritans offer support; you can speak to someone for free over the phone, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch._** Dame Esther Rantzen made a powerful plea for assisted dying to become law during a phone call with Sir Keir Starmer. The broadcaster and campaigner, who has terminal cancer, has previously expressed her wish for an assisted death. She told the Labour leader during a phone call with ITV News on Tuesday (12 March): “What I do not want is my family’s last memory of me to be painful and for me to be begging to be assisted in dying.” Sir Keir Starmer said that he wants assisted dying to be legalised after the next election and said he is "personally committed" to a change in the law.