Walking hand in hand with my wife, Sam, along the pebbled beach in Aldeburgh, everything felt surprisingly normal. We didn’t talk about hospital appointments or PIC lines and chemotherapy, instead, it felt like we could once again enjoy the simple things in life. That weekend in late March 2024, we explored the Suffolk coast with our one year old son, Logan, and our two crazy dogs .
Sam even enjoyed a pint of her favourite IPA and the hail storm we got caught in did little to dampen our mood. Yes, everything felt normal. Little did we know then that it was to be our final weekend away together.
Just nine weeks later, my darling wife, Sam passed away peacefully at the age of just 37. Sam had something called cholangiocarcinoma (pronounced kol-an-gee-oh-car-sin-oh-ma) – though it is also referred to as bile duct cancer or CCA. This is a little-known primary liver cancer with an increasing incidence and one of the worst survival rates of any cancer.
In 2019, it was the cause of 2,754 deaths in England alone. And contrary to the commonly held misconception that it is a disease of the elderly, it is affecting more younger people than ever. Every day, AMMF – the UK’s only charity dedicated solely to cholangiocarcinoma – supports increasing numbers of patients in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s whose lives are being cut short by this devastating disease.
Sam was just one of them. Sometimes it seemed like Sam and I had always known each other, such was the perfectness of our li.