A father of three who dismissed his tiredness as the result of long working hours died a few months after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of blood cancer.
David Anthony 'Tony' Williams, 62, began complaining of tiredness in the summer of 2025. His daughter Zara, 23, was frequently in hospital for endometriosis treatment at the time, and Tony was working long hours as a head of IT five days a week, so the family put his fatigue down to a stressful period.
Diagnosis after family holiday
After the family returned from a holiday to Murcia, Spain, Tony was taking time off work and sleeping, prompting his family to urge him to have a blood test at Croydon University Hospital. He underwent a blood test and a bone marrow biopsy, and on July 18 last year he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, a fast-growing and aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
Zara, a musician and classically trained pianist from Norbury, South London, said: "My dad was waking up at, you know, three or four in the morning to drive me to hospital. 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.
"It had been a really stressful time and my dad works really long hours Monday to Friday and gets very little time off except for the weekend, so of course he's tired. At the time, I just thought, he's in his 60s now - he's a bit older; people need to rest."
Treatment and decline
After initially dismissing the tiredness, Tony developed a fever and swollen lumps across his body, prompting Zara and her mother Coral to encourage a blood test. Following the diagnosis, Tony was transferred to the Royal Marsden Hospital and immediately started chemotherapy; the first round reduced his blood cancer from 70 per cent to 15 per cent.
"Initially, we were told that the chemotherapy was working," Zara said. "When we were told the cancer had shrunk to 15 per cent, we thought, great, all he needs to do is a little bit more chemo, and he will be back to normal. Do a bit more chemo, it'll get rid of it, and then we go back to normal, and this whole weird nightmare is over."
The second, more aggressive round of chemotherapy failed, and Tony's leukaemia rose to 80 per cent. He developed a lung infection and a collapsed lung; doctors said that if the infection had cleared, he might have been eligible for a clinical trial. It never cleared. In early November, the family were told Tony had around a month left; he died five days later, on November 12, 2025.
Supporting a charity cause
Zara said: "I thought we had some time. We were told we'd have more time. At the time, I just couldn't wrap my head around how this was the result and I think I just kept believing there had to be something. just really, really couldn't, like, understand how there was nothing else that could be done.
"There is absolutely nothing my dad could have done that would have prevented this or changed the outcome. Now I feel anger. At the beginning, it was just confusion."
Zara is supporting Trial Treat Beat, a Blood Cancer UK initiative. Helen Rowntree, CEO of Blood Cancer UK, said: "For too long, people with some of the deadliest blood cancers have been left behind by progress. Through Trial Treat Beat, we're investing in ground-breaking clinical trials that could double the survival rate for thousands of people across the UK. With the public's support, we can give more people the chance of life after a blood cancer diagnosis and families more time with their loved ones."
