18/06/2026
💜Patient Presenter – Gareth💜
“It’s difficult to sum up what I’ve gone through in a title”
Powerful stories shared from presenters help healthcare professionals, and to gain a deeper understanding of the patients perspective and the impact that cholangiocarcinoma has on people’s lives.
Gareth touched so may hearts during the conference with his presentation, highlighting the importance of earlier diagnosis for patients.
“Being diagnosed with at any time is terrible, but being diagnosed at 27, where a cancer known with poor survival rates was terrifying and still is.”
Reflecting on his journey, Gareth spoke about how his diagnosis of gave him access to specialist support when something doesn’t feel right:
“If I didn’t have the diagnosis of PSC, I wouldn’t have had the direct line to a clinical specialist contact when I knew something wasn’t right. If I had to go through my GP or A&E would it have led to delayed surgery? If I didn’t have the when I did would the recurrence have been too far gone?”
Gareth shared a powerful reminder as to why research, advances and support matters:
“Not just the big photo worthy moments like Australia, Disneyland or seeing Taylor Swift , but the ordinary moments - dancing in the kitchen with your partner, ordering a takeaway and sticking the tv on in the evening, going for a walk around your local park, having a hot drink and chat with your family. Moments that sound small until you realise that they are actually everything. Because of , because of , because of new drugs, because of clinical trials and because of organisations like , I have been able to keep living those moments and that’s what makes life beautiful and I will be forever grateful for mine”
If you would like to watch Gareth’s presentation you can do so via Day 2 of the conference on our website here: https://ammf.org.uk/ammf-conference-2026/ .
