St. Tammany Parish Cholangiocarcinoma Support Group

When we first started the St. Tammany Parish Cholangiocarcinoma Support Group, we pictured a room where someone newly diagnosed could walk in, take a deep breath, and think, "These people get it." That is still our heart today.

Through our partnership with Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, we provide this dedicated space for patients and caregivers carrying the weight of a bile duct cancer diagnosis. We are also actively working to establish an additional support group in a nearby parish to extend this circle of care to even more families in our region.

We sit around a table, not a podium. We share real stories, not statistics. Some of us are in the thick of treatment, some are caregiving, and some of us are long-term survivors who remember exactly what those first hard months felt like.

As part of A Rhea of Hope LA, our support group connects you with more than just a meeting. You gain access to our wider support services: help finding reliable information, guidance to Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation resources, and patient advocacy when navigating options or second opinions.

Emotional support and hope counseling are woven into every gathering. Sometimes that looks like quiet listening; other times it is practical encouragement for managing side effects, treatment travel, or family conversations. We make room for tears, laughter, and small celebrations.

Whether you attend regularly or visit once, you are welcomed exactly as you are. In this circle, you are not alone, and there is real, lived hope for the road ahead.