'Fit and Healthy' Dad, 62, Died Months After Feeling Tired as Tests Revealed an Aggressive Type of Cancer

A 'fit and healthy' father of three died less than five months after being told he had acute myeloid leukaemia, an aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow that had first appeared as nothing more than persistent tiredness.

David Anthony 'Tony' Williams, 62, from south London, had put his exhaustion down to a demanding job and family pressures before his diagnosis on 18 July 2025.

Tony, who worked as head of IT five days a week, began feeling fatigued during the summer of 2025. At the time, his daughter Zara, 23, was attending regular hospital appointments for endometriosis, while he was also managing a heavy workload.

The family assumed the exhaustion was understandable. Tony had been waking early to drive Zara to hospital, then going straight to work, and had little time to recover beyond weekends.

A Diagnosis After a Family Holiday

The warning signs became harder to ignore after a family holiday to Murcia, Spain. Tony took leave from work but spent much of the trip sleeping, prompting Zara and his wife, Coral, to urge him to have blood tests at Croydon University Hospital.

Following a blood test and a bone marrow biopsy, Tony was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia on 18 July 2025. The disease is a rapidly progressing cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.

Zara, a musician and classically trained pianist from Norbury, said the family had not initially questioned her father's tiredness because his routine seemed to explain it.

'My dad was waking up at, you know, three or four in the morning to drive me to hospital,' she said. 'At that point, when I was calling my mum saying, like, dad's sleeping all the time, I didn't question it because, you know, if you're awake at 3am, and then you're going to work at six, of course you're going to be tired.'

She added that Tony worked long hours from Monday to Friday and had very little time off apart from weekends. 'At the time, I just thought, he's in his 60s now, he's a bit older, people need to rest,' Zara said.

'Your Father's Not Well at All'

Tony's condition changed after the fatigue. He developed a fever and swollen lumps across his body, leading Zara and Coral to insist that he seek testing at their local hospital.

The results led to the diagnosis on 18 July. Zara described the moment she learned her father had cancer as she made her way to the hospital ward.

'On my way to the ward, I'm seeing a bunch of cancer support signs and so in my head I'm like, okay, so you're going get told that your dad has cancer,' she said.

'I come in and my parents sit me down on the bed that my dad's on, and my mum keeps it together, and then she closes the curtain, and she goes, 'your father's not well at all. He has leukaemia'. My mum burst into tears, you never think that you will be told that your father has cancer.'

Treatment and a Rapid Decline

Tony underwent four months of chemotherapy. At first, the treatment appeared to be working. A later, more aggressive round of treatment was not successful. He then developed a lung infection and a collapsed lung.

According to the family, doctors said he might have been eligible for a clinical trial if the infection had resolved. He died on 12 November 2025, less than five months after his diagnosis.

Acute myeloid leukaemia can progress quickly, and reported symptoms may include tiredness, fever and swollen glands.