Just yesterday,
I was a person.
Today, I am a patient.
Just yesterday, I was a person.
Today, I am a patient.
When a diagnosis like cholangiocarcinoma arrives, the ground shifts quickly. This page helps you orient, understand what matters first, and take the next step calmly.
You are here because you or someone close to you has been diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma.
A diagnosis like this is disruptive.
It creates urgency, confusion, and pressure all at once.
You do not need to understand everything right now.
You do need a clear, steady starting point.
Understanding the Bile Duct Environment
Cholangiocarcinoma
(ko-LAN-jee-oh-kar-sih-NOH-muh)
The word can feel unfamiliar at first.
Breaking it down makes it easier to understand.
- Chol means bile.
- Angio means duct or tract.
- Carcinoma means a cancer that begins in the protective tissue that lines the ducts.
You do not need to master this terminology today.
You only need enough understanding to orient yourself and take the next step.
In this case, the cancer develops in the epithelial lining of the bile ducts.
Bile is a chemical fluid produced by the liver.
It flows through the bile ducts to the intestines, where it shapes dietary fats into tiny transport structures that carry essential nutrients into the body’s cellular network, helping cells maintain their resilience and structural integrity.
Without bile, this nutrient transport cannot occur, and cells do not receive the nutrients they need to remain strong and stable.
As bile moves through the ducts, it remains in constant contact with the protective lining of those ducts, called the epithelial layer.
Every moment of every day, bile flows across this delicate lining as it travels from the liver to the intestines.
Inside the bile ducts, the epithelial lining and the bile flowing across it form the environment in which cholangiocarcinoma develops.
Like all living tissues, this lining is designed to withstand normal biological conditions.
But when the condition of that bile changes over time, the lining can come under increasing stress.
Your Starting Point
This page gives you a starting point and the next step in sequence.
You are not expected to navigate this alone.
Think of us as a team that stands beside you.
You are us. We are you.
You fight to win. So do we, alongside you.
That is who answers when you call.
Lived experience.
We are here to help you orient, prioritise, and build an effective response, step by step.
The first goal is simple.
Help you regain control and take the next right step, calmly and without assumption.
This is a response-led place.
Here, action follows clarity and decisions are taken thoughtfully, not reactively.
You will not be rushed.
You will not be overwhelmed with information.
The focus is clear.
Help you understand what matters now and support the steps that move you forward.
Hello.
My name is Steve Holmes. I am a late-stage cholangiocarcinoma survivor and co-founder of this Foundation with my wife, Claire.
Like you, I did not plan for this diagnosis. No one does.
When a diagnosis like cholangiocarcinoma arrives, people often find themselves suddenly standing inside complex medical terrain they have never seen before.
What most patients need in that moment is not slogans or reassurance. They need orientation. A clear understanding of where they are, what matters now, and what the next step should be. That is why this Foundation exists.
Over time, Claire and I realised something very important.
Patients often assume the cancer system functions as one continuous pathway.
Cause → Prevention → diagnosis → treatment → recurrence prevention.
In reality, those phases are disconnected.
The system is very effective at diagnosis → treatment.
Patients and families are left to navigate the gaps on either side of that.
Our work focuses on enhancing what works and closing those gaps so the full arc of this cancer is addressed.
We translate lived survival experience, clinical knowledge, and patient journeys into practical navigation systems that help patients move through this terrain step by step.
This includes the frameworks, tools, and programs you will find throughout this site.
We have intentionally developed a culture that functions as a survival system in its own right.
It is how patients learn to recognise the difference between what is unlikely and what is thought impossible.
That minuscule distinction matters.
If you carry this diagnosis, you see the terrain differently.
Those who do not carry it cannot see what you see.
And that difference can become the path between the unlikely and the impossible.
Everything we build has one purpose.
Help patients and families understand the terrain they are in, organise their response, and move forward with clarity.
This work has been carried personally by Claire and me for the past eight years because patients could not wait for systems to catch up.
That personal capacity reached its limits.
Donations and community support are beginning to arrive, but they are not yet enough to sustain the work at the level patients deserve.
If this work helps you or someone you love, supporting the Foundation helps ensure these systems continue to exist for the next patient who arrives here.
Because what we have learned is this.
Behaviour under pressure can be systemised.
Culture can be engineered.
And survival can improve in real time when patients are equipped to respond clearly.
The cure is in the cause.
When we understand the cause, prevention becomes possible.
That is the work ahead.
Steve Holmes
View my bio
“Just yesterday, I was a person. Today, I am a patient. I must become the best patient I can be, so I can become that person again.” — Stephen A. Gamble-Holmes (Steve)
