A devastated mum is unlikely to live to see her children finish primary school after being diagnosed with incurable cancer – but she is determined to make the most of the time she has left.
Christine Lote was first told the pain she felt in her right heel was due to tendon issues, before doctors discovered the far more sinister cause – chondrosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.
At just 42, she has been told “five years to live is optimistic” as the cancer has now spread to her lungs.
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Her first thought upon hearing the heartbreaking news was for her two daughters, Sophie and Chloe, who are just four and three.
“I was devastated,” Christine, a solicitor from Bristol, told Need To Know.
“My immediate thought was that my girls aren’t going to remember me.”
Christine first started experiencing pain in her right heel in 2021, which doctors initially diagnosed as peroneal tendonitis – inflammation or degeneration of the tendons on the outer ankle.
While she was treated with massage and exercise, the pain persisted, and she was eventually sent for an MRI, which found a mass in her ankle, which they believed to be a tumour.
Christine was referred to the Sarcoma Service in Oxford and within a few months, was given the devastating diagnosis.
She had been on maternity leave at the time of the news in January 2022, having welcomed her firstborn Sophie just seven months earlier.
Christine said: “Upon hearing the news, we were shocked.
“I had already been through a previous breast cancer journey in 2018, but we have been told the two cancers are not connected.
“I was also concerned that I had been pregnant while having cancer in my body and if this would have any negative impact on my new baby.
“When you hear the words ‘you have cancer’, your mind spins and immediately turns to ‘what does this mean for my life expectancy, am I going to need chemotherapy, am I going to lose my hair?’.”
Christine’s form of cancer doesn’t respond to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and instead is treated with surgery, so in early 2022 she underwent an operation to remove the mass.
While she was initially able to return to work and resume life as normal, when she fell pregnant with her second daughter, Chloe, she noticed some swelling in the heel and ankle area.
While she was advised not to have any scans done while pregnant due to the radiation, after welcoming Chloe in February 2023, a scan found the cancer had returned.
Christine’s only option was to have her leg amputated below the knee, a procedure she underwent that June.
She said: “At the time, I had a four-month-old baby and an almost two-year-old, my thoughts were ‘how am I going to be the mother I need to be on one leg?’
“I wasn’t even 40 then, so silly things went through my mind like, how do I dress? Am I going to be able to wear high heels again? How will I walk my girls in the pram? Some might say really ridiculous things, but it really worried me.
“But I knew that if this was what it took for me to see my children grow up and get rid of the cancer, then fine, I had no choice, let’s crack on.”
Christine had a prosthetic leg fitted and tried to move on, having CT scans every three months to check if the cancer was spreading.
But in April 2024, she got the news she had been dreading – doctors had spotted something in her lungs that was concerning, and she was sent for a biopsy, having part of her left lung removed to be sent off for testing.
Almost a year on from the amputation, Christine was delivered another blow: the cancer had spread to her lungs and was now stage four, and incurable.
She said: “I’ve still never really got my head around how it starts in the heel of your foot and then ends up in the lungs.
“I was very surprised because my breathing wasn’t laboured.
“I didn’t have a cough, and there were literally no symptoms around my lungs.”
But with the news that the cancer was incurable, the mum wanted to know how long she could expect to have left.
Devastatingly, in June 2024, she was told “five years to live is optimistic”.
Since then, her focus has been on making as many memories with her girls as she can – as well as proving to them that she is still capable of achieving noteworthy things, including running a 10k with her prosthetic for Race For Life.
Christine said: “As much as I try not to let that timescale of five years define me, it’s always in the back of my mind and every now and again – especially around birthdays and milestones – it heightens and I questions ‘is this another year down?’
“It’s quite unnerving, it can be really overwhelming if you let it be.
“I have to actively try and quieten the noise around that.”
Christine has had a number of procedures on her lungs since her diagnosis, including a lobectomy of her right lung and two ablation operations.
Treatment going forward includes scans every three months and, if required, further lung surgeries.
But there is only so much doctors can do, as there is a limit to how much of her lungs can be removed.
Christine’s most recent scans have been clear, with another one scheduled for May 2026, leaving her in a stable position – for the time being.
She said: “I’m fully aware that you’re only as good as your last scan, so our mentality as a family is to make the most of the good months until such time that things change.”
Christine says that while her children are unaware of her health issues, she and husband Damien, 44, know a time will come when they will need and deserve some age appropriate answers to any questions they raise.
She said: “As far as they’re concerned, I’m pretty present at the moment – I’m not in and out of hospitals, I’m not sick.
“There might come a time when Sophie’s a bit older that she asks some questions and we shall deal with that when the time comes.”
For now, the mum is determined to enjoy the time she has left with her family.
Christine said: “I’m very keen on memory making.
“I write to my children once a month with a little round-up of what we’ve been doing, so that when I’m not here, they’ve got some idea about the type of person I was as their mummy and what we used to do.
“Day-to-day, I try not to let the fact that I’ve got cancer overwhelm everything that we do.”
Chrstine’s New Years Resolution for 2026 was to re-learn how to run, having previously relearnt how to walk and cycle – hence her participation in the upcoming 10km run.
She added: “First and foremost, I wanted to raise money for Cancer Research as sadly most people are affected either directly or indirectly by cancer.
“The Race for Life event will bring together people from the cancer community and I wanted to be a part of that.
“I also want to show my girls that mummy will challenge herself and give new things a go, even if they are a bit tricky.”
READ MORE: ‘I prepared to leave my kids behind after a shock diagnosis – now my future is back’
TIMELINE
- Early 2021 – Christine experiences ankle and heel pain, diagnosed with peroneal tendonitis
- Mid 2021 – pain doesn’t get better, Christine is sent for steroid injection – a mass is found in her ankle instead and she is sent for an MRI
- September 2021 – Christine is referred to Oxford Sarcoma
- December 2021 – Christine is sent for a biopsy
- January 2022 – Christine is diagnosed with Chondrosarcoma, a rare bone cancer
- March 2022 – ‘limb saving surgery’ is undergone, mass is removed
- Mid-late 2022 – pain returns in Christine’s leg, during her pregnancy with second daughter Chloe
- February 2023 – Christine is told her cancer is returned
- June 2023 – Christine undergoes a below the knee amputation
- April 2024 – following scans every three months, Christine is told there is something on her scan, in her lungs
- May 2024 – Christine undergoes surgery to remove part of her right lung, which is sent of for testing
- June 2024 – Christine is told the cancer has now spread to her lungs and she has stage 4 incurable cancer. Doctors tell her living five more years is ‘optimistic’
- Late 2024 – present – regular three-monthly scans, Christine has undergone three additional lung surgeries
