Rob was born on the 7th Sept 1976 to Mary and Stephen Williams. We all grew up in a town called Mitcham, South London. Rob was always the wildest ones out of my siblings. A bit of a daredevil when came to bikes. There was never a dull moment, he had such a fantastic sense of humour and could light up any room with his cheeky smile. He worked over 25 years as a Refuse collector for the London borough of Sutton and Merton. Such a hard worker and character. Some of colleagues have told me countless stories and laughs they all had working together. It’s fair to say Rob left a lasting impact on those that knew him and people he met in such a short time before his passing. Like many family’s that have been touch by cancer, our family is missing a much loved member.  

Rob became a father for the first in his late 30’s to Michael. Rob was so incredibly happy during this time in his life and beaming with pride holding son. He looked forward to watching him grow up and spoiling him. When Rob was diagnosed, his main driving force was to fight for the sake of his son to be there for him. Enduring hours of cancer treatments and never losing hope. Sadly, the cancer had spread too far for the treatment to make any difference. When Rob passed away, Michael was only five and will grow up without his dad. Missing out all the love Rob would have showered Michael with throughout his life.   

We have made it our mission for the bowel cancer screening to be dropped from 60 to include everyone, and under 40’s. We need to rid this notion that bowel cancer only affects the over 60’s, by excluding the under 60’s from the screening program is unfair and causing unnecessary suffering to younger people and deaths. Up until before Rob was diagnosed, he was dismissed many times by his gp for having gastroenteritis. When he complained about feeling sleepy and fatigued all the time, they said it was down to his epilepsy medication. Afterall up until then he had no family history or known genetic risk flagged up from testing.  Yet he Rob had all the classic bowel cancer symptoms. Had there been a screening program from his age group, without a shadow of a doubt Rob would have taken up the invite and may still be here now. Let’s undo this injustice and fight for change and to save many more life by dropping the bowel screen age. Massive thank you from our family for all your support. Please keeping signing and sharing. Thank you.   (Photo of Rob with his son)