Mike Peters - R.I.P.

[telekon3]

The lead singer of the influential rock band from the 1980s died at the age of 66, three decades after he received his initial cancer diagnosis.

Mike Peters formed his rock band The Alarm in 1981 and within two years already had charting song in "Sixty Eight Guns." They saw continued success through the '80s, but Peters left the band a decade later in pursuit of other creative projects, namely The Poets of Justice. He would return to reunite The Alarm in 2000, and also played with Big Country at the beginning of the 2010s.

Peters was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995 and chronic lymphocytic leukemia soon after, but continued playing and touring with his band, per a release obtained by People. Peters reportedly continued playing for decades despite a long fight with cancer that included remission, relapses, and experimental treatments.

The singer eventually sought help for other blood cancer patients by founding the Love Hope Strength Foundation in 2006 with the goal of recruiting more stem cell donors by advertising at music shows. According to People, the charity directly helped to add some 250,000 to the stem cell donor registry.

The outlet reported that in April of 2024 Peters was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma called Richter's Syndrome. He gave an interview in which he said he was looking for a stem cell transplant donor and expressed his feelings about his diagnosis.

"At one point, I had to think to myself, this could be it," Peters told People. "I had to face it up to that because I had to find the strength to accept it and acknowledge it and realize it was potentially a real outcome. And then, I had to figure out how I was going to cope with it?"

Peters gave an interview to Guitar World magazine in 2018 where he said, "Live right up to the last breath and stay positive about the world, your family and the environment you live in."