A “fit and healthy” dad of three who put his tiredness down to long hours at work died after being diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer.
In the summer of 2025, David Anthony ‘Tony’ Williams, 62, started complaining of tiredness.
At the time, his daughter, Zara, 23, was back and forth to hospital for endometriosis treatment, and Tony was working long hours as a head of IT, five days a week, so his family put it down to general tiredness during a stressful time for the family.
After getting back from a family holiday to Murcia, Spain, Tony was taking time off work and sleeping, so his family pushed for him to get his blood tested at Croydon University Hospital.
Tony underwent a blood test and a bone marrow biopsy, and on July 18, 2025, he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia – a fast-growing, aggressive cancer of the blood and bone marrow.
Tony underwent a grueling four months of chemotherapy, which showed the treatment was working, but a second, more aggressive round of chemotherapy had failed.
Tony 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. But it didn’t – and sadly, on November 12, 2025, Tony died.
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 mom saying, like, ‘Dad’s sleeping all the time,’ I didn’t question it because, you know, if you’re awake at 3 a.m., 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.”
After initially dismissing the tiredness, Tony started experiencing a fever and swollen lumps across his body.
So Zara and her mom, Coral, encouraged him to get a blood test at his local hospital.
The results came back, and on July 18, 2025, Tony was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.
Zara said: “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 [to] get told that your dad has cancer.
“I come in, and my parents sit me down on the bed that my dad’s on, and my mom keeps it together, and then she closes the curtain, and she goes, ‘Your father’s not well at all. He has leukemia.’
“My mom burst into tears; you never think that you will be told that your father has cancer.”
Tony was transferred to the Royal Marsden Hospital and immediately started chemotherapy; the first round showed that his blood cancer had dropped from 70 percent to 15 percent.
“Initially, we were told that the chemotherapy was working,” Zara said.
“When we were told the cancer had shrunk to 15 percent, 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.”
Sadly, the second round of chemotherapy did not have the same success, and Tony’s leukemia rose to 80 percent.
Tony 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 did.
In early November, the family was told Tony had around a month left; he died five days later, on 12 November 2025.
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.
“I 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. To find out more about Blood Cancer UK’s plans to transform survival for people with some of the deadliest blood cancers, visit this website.
Helen Rowntree, CEO of Blood Cancer UK, says: “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.”
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