Dame Esther Rantzen, Childline founder, dies at 86

Dame Esther Rantzen, one of Britain's best-known television presenters, has died at the age of 86.

She presented That's Life!, a BBC programme that ran for more than twenty years. The show became famous for its campaigns to protect children from abuse. This work led Rantzen to set up Childline, a phone service where children could report abuse safely.

After her husband Desmond Wilcox died in 2000, she wrote about loneliness in older people. She then created The Silver Line, a helpline available twenty-four hours a day for elderly people who felt isolated.