The Alarm frontman Mike Peters dies at 66 following three-decade cancer battle
Mike Peters, the frontman of Welsh rock band The Alarm, has died aged 66 after a 30-year battle with blood cancer.
The musician and cancer campaigner passed away following treatment at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester.
Peters, who co-founded the Love Hope Strength Foundation with his wife Jules, was known for hits including Sixty Eight Guns and Strength.
Born in Prestatyn, Denbighshire, Peters started his musical journey in 1977 with a band called The Toilets after seeing the Sex Pistols perform in Chester.
Before his music career, he worked in the computer department for Kwik Save supermarket.
After various line-up changes, The Alarm played their first gig in Prestatyn in 1981, emerging from the punk era.
The band gained a transatlantic following after supporting U2 on their 1983 US tour, becoming the first Welsh musicians since Tom Jones and Bonnie Tyler to crack America.
Their debut album Declaration was released in 1984, featuring Sixty Eight Guns and Blaze of Glory.
The Alarm sold more than five million albums and achieved 16 UK Top 50 singles throughout their career.
Peters was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995, describing his relationship with cancer as “fighting a war”.
He was later diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia in 2005, which returned in 2015 before he went into remission.
In early 2025, Peters developed Richter syndrome, an aggressive form of lymphoma that he said would have killed him within two months if left untreated.
He co-founded the Love Hope Strength Foundation with his wife Jules to recruit bone marrow donors at live music shows.
The charity has added more than 250,000 people to stem cell registers worldwide through its “Get On The List” campaigns.
Peters organised treks to the Himalayas, Mount Kilimanjaro and Snowdon, including a 2007 concert billed as the “world’s highest”, watched by 3 million people online.
Peters joined Bruce Springsteen on stage at a charity concert in 2014, with other musicians including Bono and Neil Young making impromptu appearances with The Alarm over the years.
Despite his illness, he continued to tour across Europe and the United States, writing new material and organising annual weekend events in Llandudno called The Gathering.
In March 2018, part of a tour of Germany was postponed after Peters suffered an allergic reaction to his medication.
Peters lived in Dyserth, North Wales, with his wife of 39 years, Jules, who had fought her own cancer battle, and their sons Dylan, 20, and Evan, 18.
He was awarded an MBE in 2019 for his services to cancer care.
The couple also filmed a documentary for BBC Wales about their lives and Jules’ recovery from breast cancer, titled While We Still Have Time.
In 2018, Peters told Guitar World magazine that his “simple message” was “to stay alive and appreciate every second you’ve got”.
“Live right up to the last breath and stay positive about the world, your family and the environment you live in,” he said.
Last year, Peters credited his fans with giving him strength, saying his diagnosis had led to “phenomenal support and prayers from all directions”.