Prince William's former flying instructor has died of cancer after many years of being exposed to toxic helicopter fumes. Flight Sergeant Zach Stubbings died aged 47 after battling multiple myeloma, a cancer that affects the bone marrow and plasma cells. The father of three had spent nine years inhaling toxic exhaust fumes from Sea King helicopters while serving in the RAF. He was diagnosed in 2013, thirteen years joining the RAF Search and Rescue.
Mr Stubbings trained the Prince of Wales when he was based at RAF Valley in Anglesey from 2010 to 2013 flying the search-and-rescue helicopters. The future King regularly flew Sea King helicopters - the same aircrafts as Zach. His passing was revealed by former Navy commander Richard Sutton, who told the Times that he died last month after going into a hospice a few weeks earlier. The two men both worked for the coastguard, carrying out search and rescue in 2015.
Mr Sutton was also diagnosed with cancer 12 years ago. He has epithelioid fibrosarcoma - a cancer that often starts in the bone before spreading around the body. And following the death of Zach, Mr Sutton called him a "lively and bubbly guy" and told how his death was "yet another blow" for his wife Anna-Louise, who lost her first husband and seven-year-old child in a car crash in 2015. Richard and Zach are among hundreds of members of the Armed Forces who have also been diagnosed with cancers which they claim were caused by exposure to fumes. As well as multiple myeloma, former servicemen who have flown Sea King, Wessex and Puma and Chinook helicopters have been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, throat cancer, lung cancer and testicular cancer.
Zach previously told how he was often surrounded by black fumes from the exhaust of the aircraft. "If you're by the cargo door, the exhaust comes right through," he told the Mail last year. "Even worse, if you're working on the winch, which I was, you're putting your head right out into it. We had to clean everything. It didn't feel right. There was no protection, nothing. We all complained about it." He added how he would often get "a face full" of the sooty fumes.
And on receiving the diagnosis in 2012 he told WalesOnline: "They thought I had an allergy to the new suits for work that we had been issued with but when the tests didn't come up with anything they did some blood screening. I was up a tree on the high ropes course on a Friday afternoon when I got a phone call from the senior medical officer to say to go to the medical centre first thing on Monday.
"It sounded serious but I had no idea why they wanted to see me. I had no symptoms so it was a real shock when they diagnosed cancer. It is a type of cancer that you are never in remission with but it can be active or non-active. I have regular blood tests to keep on top of it but it did change my world completely. I was an instructor at the time of diagnosis and had plans to further my career but then I had to get moved to lighter duties and was discharged in 2015. It was a huge knock.".
