Love, hope and positivity! Hospice supporter Michaela does not do anything by halves.

You have to meet Michaela Armstrong to know that the small matter of jumping out of a plane from 13,500 feet is not going to phase her.

She describes having no nerves at all beforehand when, in a joint fundraising endeavour for her beloved hospice with her son-in-law, Lewis, in memory of her husband, Kev, she took the exhilarating freefall.

The first 8,000 feet was a breathtaking adrenalin rush while, at about 5,500 feet, whoooosshhhh, the parachute opened and views across, Shropshire, Cheshire, Staffordshire and Mid/North Wales opened up, is that the Wirral in the distance?

For many people a skydive is something they wouldn’t ever contemplate but when Michaela tells us about her love for her husband, Kev, and the challenges they faced after Kev’s diagnosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, a cancer of the bile duct, you know you’re talking to someone with real determination and courage.

She wouldn’t say this herself.

Michaela will actually say that all of the bravery was Kev’s, displayed throughout his illness. But, when you see and read all of the notes she kept while helping navigate Kev’s cancer journey what you actually realise is, they did it together, “with help from a number of healthcare professionals and our close family and friends.”

Michaela and Kev met in July 1996.

“It wasn’t quite love at first sight when I met Kev, because I took a little while to get to know him. I soon realised his absolute joy for life, his laughing, fun-loving, ‘life and soul of any party’ character was all part of his kind and caring personality.

Kev was an HGV driver who eventually switched to work for a firm that supported the local, Wirral, Aldi distribution centre so that most of his daily working life kept him closer to home. Michaela is a Band 3 health care assistant in the Saint Catherine’s community nursing team in Wirral. She told us,

Once we were together Kev would do anything for me and our girls, my Sam, Lewis’s partner, and Summer. We also took over the guardianship of our young boy, Harry, when he was 6 and he’s been brought up as our own son too.”

Special people!

“As well as being the pillar of our family, Kev had many good friends. We had what people would class as an everyday, happy family life, children growing up, working hard, nice holidays and planning for our future.

It wasn’t quite out of the blue, because Kev had been getting getting pain in his lower back for some time but after a series of bloods and other tests, we were literally floored when his cancer diagnosis, on 4^th April 2019, was confirmed.  

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Lesions found in his liver had been secondary and the primary cancer was in his bile duct. It was stage four, inoperable and incurable.

The prognosis then, considering where the cancer had spread already, was between six weeks and six months.

Kev and I fell into each other’s arms.”

Michaela has a little pause and then continues,

“Once the news had sunk in a little we were determined to investigate every treatment option available, and we would definitely not be setting a time limit.

We were going to face every challenge together, but Kev wanted me to always be his guide, his second, and sometimes third, opinion in recommendations our healthcare experts were advising.  Kev would say, ‘you just tell me what I’ve gotta do and I’ll do it.’

So first, we got married! It just seemed the right thing to do, even after over 25 years together. It was on 7^th May 2019, surrounded by our lovely children, our family and friends, we tied the knot at the iconic Holy Cross Church in Woodchurch. Then we followed it with a fantastic celebration at The Saddle in Prenton. Happy Days!

Now it was time to focus on Kev’s illness and my attitude was to accept what we couldn’t change and focus on what we could.

I found the UK’s only cholangiocarcinoma charity, AMMF, which was founded in memory of a man named Alan Morement. I devoured it. The website is packed with information and support for what is still a relatively rare cancer, though its incidence is growing.

So, we talked with consultants, researched the latest treatments and potential new ones and we were determined to ‘kick that can down the road.’ 

Kev responded well to his first cycle of chemotherapy because he was treatment free for six months after November 2019. He was already beating the odds.

A year after beginning his first course, by May 2020, Kev embarked on a number of new cycles of chemo to mitigate his progressing cancer. There were many ups and downs, but we were all coping with the downs and completely living for the ups.

We were having more time than we ever thought with my lovely Kev.”

In 2021 Michaela advocated for Kev to be genetically tested for a brand-new drug for cholangiocarcinoma, called Pemigatinib. Some may have considered he was already too late in his prognosis. However, Kev had the genetic markers that the test was looking for and Michaela’s strong advocacy meant he was duly accepted for the new treatment (he was in fact the first patient at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre to receive it).

Michaela is absolutely sure that this gave the whole family another year with their beloved Kev.

We’ve had the privilege of reading Michaela’s personal notes of all the treatments and Kev’s response to them. There are some 4,000 words written and it is a personal document of determination, courage and above all, true love.

Kev tucking into a roastie at the hospice

Michaela continues,

“We had great support from community MacMillan nurse, Sheila, and by January 2021 Kev had his first outpatients appointment at Wirral Hospice St John’s with Dr Clare. Alongside palliative consultant, Dr Jo, I can only say the care, support and advice they gave us would be summed up as a 10 out of 10! They were fabulous. Dr Clare was part of Kev’s medical support team during the rest of his journey.

Kev’s visits to the hospice outpatients and his two stays on the inpatients ward were exemplary. He told us it was like being in a five-star hotel. Everyone, doctors, nurses, health care assistants, domestics, kitchen staff and volunteers were just superb.”

Kev sadly died in Michaela’s arms on 4^th August 2022. Michaela reminisced,

“Kev really was the best husband, dad and friend. He believed in Confucius’ saying, ‘we all have two lives, we start living the second one when we realise we only have one.’

I personally delivered the AMMF’s cholangiocarcinoma early symptoms letter to all Wirral GPs in 2023 and the latest version of this can now be found at this link, https://ammf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AMMF-GP-Letter-June-2025.pdf 

Since Kev passed, we also organised a charity walk with family and friends for AMMF, on what would have been his 50^th birthday.

I joined in the hospice’s Liverpool Anglican Cathedral abseil in 2023. That was a real buzz!

Then, this year along with Lewis, we completed our exhilarating skydive. We loved it!

Can’t wait to take it up another notch, in memory of my Kev, to a Wing Walk for the hospice in 2026!”

Wow, Michaela, thank you! We know that you will approach the Wing Walk with your watchwords, love, hope and positivity.

Thank you so much for sharing yours and Kev’s story with us.

Michaela and Lewis feature in Michaela’s exciting skydive video – click here to view.

Kev had written a poem in 2020 during his illness which resonates very personally with all his family and friends.

Michaela had bookmarks made for them all featuring Kev’s thoughts captured in poetry.