What happened to Lindsay Nicholson's husband John Merritt and daughter Ellie?

Lindsay Nicholson's husband John Merritt, chief reporter of the Observer, died aged 35 of a rare blood cancer when their daughter Ellie was three and Nicholson was four months pregnant with Hope. Ellie was later diagnosed with the same cancer at nine, puzzling consultants at Great Ormond Street, and died in 1998 after eight months of treatment. Nicholson later survived breast cancer.

• Nicholson says the breakdown she should have had in the 1990s arrived in 2017, which she calls a lost year.
• Nicholson assumed breast cancer meant death until a hospital receptionist told her sicker patients were ahead of her in the queue.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Rest Is Politics (2026-10-22). Read the whole episode summary →

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