Twin sisters are speaking out after their father died from a rare bile duct cancer he initially dismissed as a pulled muscle.
Tasha and Serena Kainth, 30, from Solihull, UK, said their father Harmi, 59, first noticed abdominal pain in March 2022 but “wasn’t worried” about it.
“He probably didn’t want us to worry,” Tasha told PA Real Life.
The pain persisted for a month. His wife, Sharan, urged him to see a doctor.
Blood tests came back fine initially. Doctors prescribed acid reflux tablets.
When symptoms worsened that spring, further tests showed his liver functions “starting to change.”
By July, Harmi had lost more than four stones. He was jaundiced. His urine had turned brown.
He suffered constant hiccups that kept him from sleeping. He couldn’t walk up stairs without losing breath.
Tasha said her father’s condition “deteriorated really quickly” over five months.
“I’d never seen anything like it,” she added.
Serena said: “He’d just lie on the sofa all day because he didn’t have the energy to move.”
The family faced a six-week wait for a referral scan. They opted to use his workplace private medical insurance instead.
After a CT scan, Harmi received a phone call on August 5 confirming cholangiocarcinoma.
Serena recalled: “I just remember the doctor was like, ‘I’m really sorry to say it’s cancer’ over the phone, and then he put the phone down, and Dad just burst into tears.”
She continued: “The three of us just wrapped our arms around him and gave him a hug, then I remember saying, ‘We’ll look after you, it’s going to be fine’.”
“Even though I didn’t know what would happen.”
The family was told to wait for contact from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
By August 16, Harmi “couldn’t even move out of bed.” A local doctor made a home visit.
Tasha said the doctor advised calling an ambulance, which arrived six hours later.
Medics admitted him “straight away” because they “saw how ill he was.”
Tasha stayed overnight in A&E. “It got to the point where we had to brush his teeth for him,” she said.
“He had rapid breathing and he was really confused too.”
“Seeing that strong man in your life suddenly not being able to even lift himself up was hard.”
Doctors said Harmi “could’ve died” without multiple surgeries to drain his bile ducts and fit a stent.
He spent six weeks in hospital stabilizing.
Serena said: “As a daughter, one of the worst things is having to leave your dad on his own in a hospital bed after visiting hours are over.”
“He was in tears… and you feel so helpless.”
Over two years, Harmi endured more than 100 hospital appointments.
He had multiple rounds of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and a failed surgery to remove the tumor.
He visited A&E six times for life-threatening emergencies including sepsis.
In October 2024, he was admitted to a Marie Curie hospice.
He died there peacefully a week later, aged 62.
Tasha said: “As much as people try to empathise – and our friends were amazing – but until you go through something like that yourself, it’s always going to feel isolating and lonely.”
“We’re sharing our story because end of life care is important.”
“Everybody’s going to die one day, but it isn’t really spoken about.”
“Marie Curie is amazing at what they do and thanks to them, Dad died peacefully.”
The sisters described their father as a “great dad” who was “always there” for them.
They called him a “typical strong man” who didn’t like worrying others about his health.
Serena said: “As basic as it is, if you feel there’s something wrong with your body, go and get checked out.”
“You know your own body… early detection could save your life.”
In the viral moment that connected their story to wider attention, Harmi’s diagnosis of cholangiocarcinoma — affecting roughly two in every 100,000 people — was the same rare cancer that took TikTok star Sydney Towle’s life. Towle, 26, died in July 2025 after documenting her battle with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, where cancer cells grow in the liver’s bile ducts. She had shared her final video from a hospital bed on July 23, writing that she had been hospitalized for “exactly one month” and that “everything feels like a dream in a lot of ways.”
The Kainth sisters are now raising awareness for rare cancers like the one that killed their father.