Mum surviving against all the odds - and her story could help save thousands more

A woman with deadly bile duct cancer is surviving against all the odds thanks to a new experimental drug. Carol Hardy, 65, is taking part in a clinical trial the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, and doctors hope the drug may eventually be used for a range of cancers.

The tablets – known only as RXC004 – contain a compound that blocks a pathway known to be over-activated in bile duct cancer. So far, the treatment is working and has shrunk Mrs Hardy's tumour to just over a fifth of its original size.

Bile duct cancer is rare, with around 1,000 new cases every year in the UK. It does not usually cause symptoms in the early stages but can lead to jaundice, itchy skin, weight loss and pain as it progresses.

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Most people with bile duct cancer already have advanced cancer by the time they are diagnosed, with the disease having spread to other parts of the body. Treatment is usually chemotherapy but only around 5% of people live for five years or more after diagnosis.

Mrs Hardy, from Penrith in Cumbria, discovered she had bile duct cancer by chance about four years ago after suffering gallstones. She had also been losing weight without trying. She told the PA news agency she had a 'sinking feeling' when first diagnosed and was worried about what it meant for her husband Simon, now 55, and daughter Holly, now 22.

“I can remember being sat on the seat next to my husband,” she explained. “All I can say is, it is as if your chair has been shot back down a dark passage. I heard somebody say something, but as the doctor touched my arm and said something to me, I realised it was me that had spoken.

“My words were: ‘I