After an eight-month battle with lymphoma, East Cannington’s Tony Serve passed away last Wednesday at age 66, succumbing to brain cancer.
A 40-year veteran of Perth’s airwaves, messages of condolence from the people whose lives he touched have been many.
His former wife of 21-years, Anna Fantasia, said Tony always wanted to help people, no matter what the situation.
“We’ve been reading the messages on his Instagram and Twitter and things like that, it’s been lovely to see all of that, she said.
“Obviously he was in the industry for over 40 years, he had a lot of contacts and he touched a lot of peoples lives in various ways, through radio or mentoring or kickboxing or MC’ing, just a whole wide range of jobs throughout that time.
“He was always wanting to help people, he was a mental health advocate and he really wanted to help people in any way he could. “
Tony is survived by his two sons, and Anna said Tony’s death had been a bittersweet moment for them.
“Obviously he was in a lot of pain so it’s a good thing he’s no longer in pain but it’s sad for the boys to lose their dad.
They’re doing okay, Connor is 20 and he’s coping with it, he’s was there for his dad a lot more over the last few months, our 12-year-old is doing okay, I don’t think he’s quite understanding the whole of it at the moment so he misses his dad.
“We lost my mum two months ago so it’s been a bit of a tough one for us.”
While Tony did not want a service, his sons will hold a memorial at Lake Monger Recreation Club this Friday.
“He wanted it to be as simple for us as possible, he said look, I just want to be cremated and his ashes scattered at Cottesloe beach, if the boys want to hold a service they can, but I don’t really need that, it’s more for them if they want to do that.
“The boys didn’t want to do anything to begin with but because of all the messages from people, we thought we should do a memorial so people could celebrate his life rather than it being a sad moment for people.”
