History Main / NotTheIllnessThatKilledThem

** Dr. Hiriluk suffered from an incurable sickness that was gradually killing him. His illness went into remission for a while after he was awed by the sight of a grove of flowering cherry blossoms, and it inspired him to practice medicine and find a way to share the cherry blossom miracle in his wintery homeland. His adoptive son and apprentice Chopper attempts to cure him with a rare mushroom, not knowing it is extremely poisonous (Hiriluk ate the mushroom knowing full well of its lethality because he saw how badly injured Chopper had gotten in the search for the mushroom). Ultimately, he dies by committing suicide, by blowing himself up, to spare Chopper from accidentally killing his own father figure or allowing the corrupt king to execute him.

!!Since this is a DeathTrope, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies to the examples below. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!

* ''Anime/BuddyDaddies''; Miri's mother Misaki initially wanted nothing to do with her daughter until she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, after which she takes Miri back and tries her best to be a good mother. Unfortunately for both of them, Rei's father put a hit on them and Misaki is gunned down by Ogino not long after she and Miri reunite.

* ''Film/GranTorino''; Walt has some kind of lung disease (most likely cancer due to his heavy smoking), but dies in a ThanatosGambit by goading the local gangbangers into shooting him while he's unarmed, getting them all sent to jail for murder and freeing his neighborhood from their influence.

* In ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'', the killer, [[spoiler: Justice Wargrave]], reveals a terminal illness in a posthumous letter. The killer intended to murder a large number of people [[spoiler: who had gotten away with killing others]] before committing suicide.

** In "[[Recap/CSINYS03E16 Heart of Glass]]," a man dies from being beaten and thrown against his aquarium which shatters, slicing him to death. During the investigation, the team learns that he'd been hiding the fact he had AIDS.

* ''Series/GuillermoDelTorosCabinetOfCuriosities'': In the episode "The Autopsy", the mortician Carl has terminal stomach cancer. However, he ends up committing suicide by slitting his own throat [[TakingYouWithMe to doom the alien parasite that had taken over his body]].

* ''Series/KamenRiderExAid'': In the past, Kiriya Kujo told his friend he had the Bugster Virus which was a guaranteed death sentence at the time. The news freaks out Kiriya's friend and he ends up dying in a traffic accident in his despair. There is a strong indication he [[DriventoSuicide intentionally killed himself]].
* Shuichi Kitaoka/Kamen Rider Zolda from ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' has terminal cancer and is participating in the Rider War. Though, he only dies in battle in the alternate movie and one special episode. He actually dies from his disease in the main tv series.
* ''Series/LawAndOrder'' episode "Armed Forces" has a down-on-his-luck Vietnam vet murdered. It soon comes out that he was terminally ill with cancer that he was not treating.

* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': A variation happens in "[[Recap/MonkS2E5MrMonkAndTheVeryVeryOldMan Mr Monk and The Very Very Old Man]]. The cold open has the world's oldest man Miles Hollings murdered. Everybody believes he died via natural causes, including Stottlemeyer. However, Stottlemeyer's wife Karen, who made a documentary on him, believes there is something amiss about his death. Later on, Monk and Stottlemeyer discover the person who killed him was the deputy mayor. Why? Because he ran over a teen while drunk years ago and wrote down his confession on paper and buried it in a time capsule also containing Hollings' memoirs. The mayor then made a bet that if Hollings lived another five years, they would unbury the time capsule to add another chapter.

* ''Series/{{Psych}}'': Subverted in "[[Recap/PsychS03E03Daredevils Daredevils]]" in which Shawn and Gus are tasked to find out who is sabotaging the stunts of a daredevil named Dutch. In their investigation, they learn that Dutch has a huge insurance policy that pays big if he were to die in his stunts. They also learn that Dutch has terminal pancreatic cancer. As it turns out, Dutch was the one sabotaging his stunts so that his wife and son could be well taken care of after he died. They failed because he is just that good. Luckily Shawn is able to convince Dutch not to go through with his latest sabotage and just spend his remaining time with his family.
* One of TheNewTwenties "news" from Series/SaturdayNightLive's ''[[NewsParody Weekend Update]]'' is about a 102-year-old woman who survived the Spanish Flu in TheRoaringTwenties and the Coronavirus ''twice''. But as Michael Che literally explained:
-->''However, she was [[SurpriseCarCrash not match for my car]].''

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': Jeff Hope, the villain of the first episode "A Study in Pink", confides in Sherlock that he has a brain aneurysm which could cause him to keel over at any moment. He ends up dying from a bullet wound when Watson shoots him to save Sherlock from his mind games.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey'': Overlapping with DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation, Perikles, while suffering from the Plague of Athens that killed him in real life, gets his throat slashed by Deimos.
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'': Lawrence Washington, older brother of UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington and member of the Templar Order, is suffering from tuberculosis that killed him in real life when he was assassinated by Shay. He even takes the time to thank Shay for giving him a quick death as opposed to the slower one in store for him otherwise.
* ''VideoGame/FarCry6'': [[BigBad Anton]] [[TheGeneralissimo Castillo]] reveals towards the climax of the game that he's dying of acute leukemia which his [[CureForCancer Viviro treatment]] is no longer working on, and all his tyrannical actions carried out over the course of the game were to restore Yara to true greatness before he dies. Ultimately, by the FinalBattle, once [[PlayerCharacter Dani]] corners him and his son Diego in Anton's tower, Anton decides it's BetterToDieThanBeKilled, and [[SlashedThroat cuts his own throat]] with the pruning knife he kept from years of enslavement on the tobacco fields, after [[MurderSuicide lethally shooting]] [[OffingTheOffspring Diego]] to make sure that [[LaResistance Libertad]] doesn't kill him too, for the SinsOfTheFather. To quote a previous ''VideoGame/FarCry'' villain, [[VideoGame/FarCry3 "Cancer won't be what kills you".]]
* In ''VideoGame/IllusionOfGaia'' there's a man in Watermia who challenges Will to a game where they take turns drinking from glasses while avoiding a poisoned one. When Will inevitably wins due to being psychic and knowing which one is poisoned, the man still decides to down it anyway. The next day, Will learns that the man had been diagnosed with a terminal disease and wanted to go out his way. His ghost in the Tower of Babel regrets that decision.

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'': The low-honor endings have Arthur killed off by Micah, who either stabs him in the side or shoots him in the head, instead of his tuberculosis, which would have been fatal during the time period the game takes place in.
* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'': Ana, the true BigBad of the game, is confirmed to be dying, most likely from lung cancer because of all the [[SmokingIsNotCool smo]][[GoodSmokingEvilSmoking king]] she does, which is why she's so desperate to find the [[ImmortalityInducer Divine Source]] to save her life. Sadly, by the end of the game, Ana ultimately fails at her goal: all of her forces, including her brother and [[TheDragon Dragon]] Konstantin, are killed in pursuit of the Source, and once she finally gets hold of it, she only possesses the immortality she sought for a few minutes before Lara destroys the Source. Afterwards, Ana goes into a VillainousBSOD over everything she did being AllForNothing, and ''then'' she finally dies - not from the cancer, as she'd feared, but from her superiors in [[AncientConspiracy Trinity]] deciding [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness she has outlived her usefulness]] and sending a ColdSniper to [[PrettyLittleHeadshots shoot her through the head]].

** Adrian Toomes/The Vulture contracted spinal cancer, for which he teamed up with Dr. Octavius, who promised him a treatment for it; however, he is killed by Kraven, who is busting out numerous supervillains from prison and [[HuntingTheMostDangerousGame subsequently hunting them down]]. Speaking of which...

** ...It turns out that this is actually Kraven's ''goal'' in the game, as he too is dying from cancer (heavily implied to be in Stage 4), and wishes to die a GloriousDeath from a superior predator capable of overpowering and killing him in combat, rather than "die in some sick bed". He gets his wish when Venom[[spoiler:/Harry]] brutalizes him and [[OffWithHisHead bites his head off]].

** ...It turns out that this is actually Kraven's ''goal'' in the game, as he too is dying from cancer (heavily implied to be in Stage 4), and wishes to die a GloriousDeath from a superior predator capable of overpowering and killing him in combat. He gets his wish when Venom[[spoiler:/Harry]] brutalizes him and [[OffWithHisHead bites his head off]].