Dame Esther Rantzen was deeply in love with her husband Desmond Wilcox and has expressed one final wish to meet him again. The Childline founder, who has terminal lung cancer, has regularly spoken about how much she misses her later husband, who died of a heart attack in 2000 at the age of 69, once even claiming that she'd have given up ten years of her life, just for another 10 minutes with him.

A quarter of a century on, and it's clear Dame Esther's love for Desmond lives on and, as she looks ahead to her own death, she's expressed a poignant hope for what comes next.

In a recent interview with The Times, the assisted-dying campaigner spoke bravely about the "extremely limited" future she now has while remarking that any change to assisted-dying legislation in the UK "could not possibly come in time" for her.

She also spoke movingly about her enduring love for Desmond, pondering on the possibility of an afterlife where they could be reunited once more. Dame Esther said: "If there is a heaven, it would be a very happy place. It’s a lovely idea to meet Desmond again and all those I have loved and lost — my parents and grandparents, my close friends and family."