About DMB & The Villager
About Villages & Villagers | Founders
Shared values are the cornerstone of any good community, but it’s the visions and aspirations that rise from these shared values that unleash the greatness within a community. Great communities foster great possibilities and even greater realities. DMB aspires to empower Main Beach to realise its greater possibilities and noble realities.
The Villager
The Villager is our monthly email newsletter magazine, tasked with bringing everything about village-ing and villagers to its centre.
Villagers are people who come together around common values and aspirations. They pick up the responsibility and collectively move it forward while valuing the individuals who make it so. Villagers, though varied and different, share these common values and aspirations.
We, villagers, carry forward the best of those who came before us and build new bests, celebrating those who make up our community. The Villager embraces the real, raw, grassroots spirit that binds us. It’s about being grounded and ready to make a difference. We champion our champions and those who go about life more quietly.
A Villager-styled community, like Main Beach, not only stands together, bringing out the best in each of us, but stands apart as a leader in the wider Gold Coast community.
The Villager works to help the villagers help their village reach its fullest potential. With every edition, The Villager is about village-ing—the art of collective action and true belonging. It ensures every voice is heard, each value is upheld, and every effort matters.
The Villager Club
The Villager Club is a weekly extension of our monthly magazine providing weekly and updates.
- Uniting Our Villagers and Businesses
The Villager News and Club centralise all the good stuff, celebrating the unique character and talent that makes our village lifestyle so vibrant and meaningful. News Subscribers now exceed 7,000. - Who are we and what do we do?
Great communities foster great possibilities and even greater realities. DMB channels this philosophy, ensuring Main Beach’s unique character and potential translate into higher realities.
Noble and Higher Realities
We invest every dollar earned, donated, or contributed into CCF Australia – Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Australia
- Today’s Science For Today’s Patient Benefit
We channel every earned, donated, or contributed dollar towards the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Australia who turn today’s cutting-edge research and knowledge in the high lethality group of bile-related cancer patients such as Cholangiocarcinoma (Bile Duct Cancer) Liver, Gallbladder, and Pancreatic
About The Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation
Equipping Our Patients For Survival
We are a patient-led, functional cancer research and advocacy organisation with deep knowledge and understanding of the cholangiocarcinoma challenge and other bile-related cancers. We are equally positioned and committed to prevention and early detection particularly for at-risk family members.
We Help Patients Help Themselves
CCF is uniquely built on a team of experts, beginning with the expertise of lived patient experiences and extending to response strategies, medical science, research, and healthcare delivery. We develop and implement response strategies that enhance the standard of care and increase survival in high lethality bile-related cancers.
We simplify the complexities of science, healthcare practices, and response strategies into formats that better equip and empower a patient’s capacity to more effectively engage, respond, and survive.
Empower the Patient – Increase Their Survival. Empower Their Support Community – Exponentially Increase Survivorship.
We ensure that the latest advancements are fully utilised and included as an integral part of the patient’s response toolkit.
Founders’ Story
How It Began
2016 – 2024: Steve and Claire Holmes
When Steve was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma in late 2016, Claire initiated their research efforts, only to encounter a profound lack of information, resources, and response options. The absence of a supportive patient community further isolated them, severely restricting their ability to learn about and respond effectively to such a devastating diagnosis.
After enduring 25 hours of multi-organ surgeries and participating in two international clinical trials, Steve experienced a significant breakthrough in his treatment. This critical turning point not only marked a remarkable advance in his personal health journey but also provided hope to others facing similar battles.
In October 2017, in a moment that felt akin to a graduation speech, his oncologist, Dr. Matthew Burge, provided pivotal encouragement, saying: “There are many that we help a little and some we help a lot, and then there is you. Go out there, ride your bike, and do something special with the opportunity you have been given—see you in three weeks.” Inspired by these words, The Foundation became that something special.
Claire and Steve co-founded the Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Australia in 2018. By May 2024, it became a fully-fledged registered charity, dedicated to better equipping and empowering today’s patients to more effectively respond and survive their diagnosis.
DMB and The Villager
Although Destination Main Beach had its roots in the post-GFC period of 2010, which saw tumbleweeds rolling down the avenue, it wasn’t until 2017 that Steve conceived the idea of The Villager. The concept was born primarily during his time in ICU, drifting in and out of consciousness during lengthy hospital recoveries and chemo sessions. Vivid images of cycling, running, and enjoying coffee in Main Beach kept his spirits up—The Villager, though only a concept at the time, became a parallel world where Steve could escape and distract himself from the looming threat of an impending, seemingly certain demise.
At that time, no one had ever come back from a late-stage, stage 4 cholangiocarcinoma diagnosis. The disease had already taken his younger brother, and it still carries an overall survival rate of just 3-5%. Steve’s survival was not just unexpected—it was unprecedented. Survival became an unexpected responsibility on many levels—a happy responsibility. So, from a parallel world to the real one, Steve, with Claire, set about building it.