Community Champion: Climbing with Keaton Herzer
Words that come to mind when describing Keaton Herzer: resilience, determination, and courage. But even these descriptions don’t begin to paint a full enough picture when describing Keaton Herzer.
At the age of 34, Keaton was diagnosed with stage 4 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. In the span of a year, he went from navigating the cancer journey to trying to figure out treatment options and insurance approvals after initially being denied by his insurance provider, to undergoing transplant surgery, all while balancing life with a family.
In the midst of all this, Keaton decided to start a fundraiser in support of CCF and to train to climb Mount Rainier in Washington. Keaton, just out of a liver transplant surgery, had to cut his hike short, and after all he’d been through up to that moment, you can imagine how he felt.
But one thing we know about Keaton is that he doesn’t take no for an answer. And while the climb didn’t go as planned, his “Climb for Cholangiocarcinoma” fundraiser has raised almost $85,000 in support of our important mission.
Keaton has been an unrelenting advocate for patients and families navigating a cancer diagnosis, and we want to celebrate him as our Community Champion of the Month for his determination, willingness to try, and incredible efforts to support our community.
Thank you, Keaton, for giving it your all, continuing to share your story, and giving a voice to all those facing this disease.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a husband and father to a 3-year-old boy, originally from Los Angeles and now living in Colorado. I was diagnosed with stage 4 intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma on March 18, 2025. I tried many different treatments and was eventually able to get a liver transplant in March of 2026, and I’ve been NED since that surgery.
How have you been involved with the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation?
Around the time I started a new targeted therapy, I got the idea to start a fundraiser for the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation and try to climb Mount Rainier in Washington and raise as much money as I could. We launched that fundraiser officially in December of 2025, and I’ve been trying to raise money since then.
I was also given the opportunity to speak at the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation’s annual conference this past May, and that was a really incredible experience. I got to meet a lot of amazing people, caregivers, and patients who are battling cholangiocarcinoma.
What has been the most meaningful part of your involvement?
The most meaningful thing about my involvement with Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation is that I know the money is going towards helping people who really need it. I was completely lost and did not know anything when I was first diagnosed. It’s a scary thing to get a diagnosis like this, and the folks at Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation were there for me and helped me navigate through this diagnosis and all my different treatment options. It feels really good to know that I can give back to an organization that helped me so that they can go on and help a bunch of other people.
What message would you like to share with others in the cholangiocarcinoma community?
The message I always like to share with people in the community is to never give up hope, because you never know what new medical advancement or treatment option will be available in the next few months or years. Who knows? The targeted therapy that ended up keeping my disease stable long enough for me to get to transplant did not really exist two years ago, and it was not in the guidelines as a treatment option when I started taking it; that just goes to show that there are medical breakthroughs happening every day. There are new treatment options coming out. There’s more research that helps us better understand the disease. All that’s happening every day, and the message that I want to share with others is to never give up that hope. That one day, we’ll be able to find a cure. We’ll be able to find a treatment option that’s really, really effective, and I think that day is not too far away.
How do you stay motivated and hopeful in this work?
What helps me stay motivated is the people that I’ve met in the cholangiocarcinoma community, people who are still fighting this cancer. I feel like it’s a miracle that I was able to get that targeted therapy and ultimately get a transplant. Those options should be available to more people. They should be available to everybody.
That’s really what keeps me motivated: trying to make sure that other people have access to options and the type of care that they deserve, and to make sure that people don’t feel so lost and alone when they get a diagnosis like this. I think that’s really important.
You can support Keaton’s fundraiser here.
Learn more about hosting a fundraiser in support of CCF at our Host a Fundraiser site.