Ruth Lloyd-Williams, 61, was told she had ‘months to live’ after a scan revealed her liver was ‘riddled’ with tumours, but she refuses to accept the prognosis
A mum who says she spent decades being told her painful gut problems were simply IBS has now been diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer. Although doctors have warned she may only have months left, she’s determined to push past that forecast and is holding on to hope for a turnaround.
Ruth Lloyd-Williams, 61, a businesswoman from Llandudno in North Wales, says stomach issues have dominated her life since she was five.
Over the years, she claims the symptoms were never properly explored, leaving her with an IBS label and the expectation that she would just live with it.
Everything shifted in January 2025, when she happened to ask about getting checked herself while arranging an appointment for her husband, Paul, 67.
She’d recently felt discomfort and noticed changes in her bowel habits, and decided it was time to stop putting it off, thinking: “I’ll go and ask, I’ve not been for years.”
That simple question led to life-altering news.
Following that first GP visit, Ruth was sent for a colonoscopy on 5 February 2025. She says that within an hour, clinicians told her she had bowel cancer, and that they’d found a 6cm tumour.
“It was almost like an out-of-body experience, you’re out there watching somebody else get this news that’s going to change their life,” she said.
A month later, she was informed that while treatment was possible, a cure was not. She was told a stoma would be needed — an opening created surgically on the abdomen to divert waste.
At that point, she says she was also told she likely had five years left.
When she arrived for the stoma operation, Ruth wore silver sequin trousers because she wanted, as she put it, to “make a statement”. But within 48 hours of the procedure, a scan showed the disease had reached her liver too.
“The consultant came along to see me and said, ‘I’ve got some news for you. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to upgrade your diagnosis’,” she recalled.
“I said, jovially, ‘Oh, an upgrade to me is extra leg room and a glass of champagne, so what is it?’
“He said, ‘No, unfortunately, the scan showed that you’ve got mets in your liver, you’ve got five years and there’s nothing we can do’.”
Ruth then went through chemotherapy between April and September 2025, followed by 25 rounds of radiotherapy. In February 2026, surgeons resected and ablated her liver — using extreme temperatures to destroy cancer cells. After developing an infection, a scan in March showed the tumours had returned and that her liver was described as being “riddled”.
She says she was then told she had only months left.
Rather than accept that timeline, she pushed back immediately. “My answer to that was, ‘Well, I can’t go anywhere because I’ve got a grandson due in September’,” she said.
Ruth has since been offered a newer treatment called Breakwater, taken through an IV every two weeks alongside daily tablets. She says the side effects have been difficult — including fatigue, nausea, mouth abscesses and peripheral neuropathy — but she believes the therapy is helping and could buy her more time.
“I’m now on something that wasn’t available to me when I was first diagnosed, so one year down the line, two years down the line, there might be something else,” she said.
Outside the hospital setting, Ruth has poured her experience into a diary-style book about living with bowel cancer, giving personalities to parts of her treatment journey. She calls her tumour Billy — initially wanting him to have “no mates” — named her stoma Prada, and dubbed her PICC line Lilli, inspired by piccalilli.
Working alongside an illustrator, she’s also created an animated version of Billy, modelled on what she describes as “one of the ugliest fish in the world”: the blue hairy frogfish.
Her book, Ruth vs Billy, One Woman’s War Against Billy The Hairy Blue Face Frog Fish, is expected to be released later this year. She has also created a Facebook community with the same name, where she shares updates on her condition and treatment.
She’s also thought about arrangements should the disease progress. Ruth says she would like to be cremated in her wedding dress so her family doesn’t face the task of dealing with it, and she’d want her ashes scattered in her back garden so she “never misses out on a family BBQ or a garden party.”
For now, she says she’s choosing not to live in that place mentally. Ruth — who founded a women’s community support resource called Network She and runs a medical education business for healthcare professionals — is concentrating on optimism, and on urging others in similar situations to keep fighting for time and quality of life.
“Don’t just sit there and be the statistic,” she said. “It doesn’t matter how old you are because, unfortunately, cancer doesn’t care how old you are, or what your life plans are or whether you’re going on holiday next year.
“Cancer hates positivity, so I hate cancer, so therefore I am being as positive as I possibly can, and that alone makes you feel better.
“Your diagnosis doesn’t have to be the end of your life. It might be eventually, but it also might be the reason for living.”