Avid runner Christine Lote had a mystery injury which left her right foot swollen – she assumed she had hurt herself while out jogging, but later found something terrifying
A mum has had her lower leg amputated and part of her right lung removed after what she thought was a “running injury” actually turned out to be stage four cancer.
Avid runner Christine Lote had a mystery injury which was leaving her right foot swollen. She assumed she had hurt herself while out jogging and over the next two years saw a physiotherapist and even received steroid injections. But a routine ultrasound in June 2021 in Southmead Hospital, Bristol, after the birth of her baby daughter revealed a large mass on her bone, which a biopsy revealed was cancerous.
After a failed attempt to remove it, the only option left was to amputate the 41-year-old solicitor’s leg below the knee in May 2023. But just one year of being cancer free, an MRI showed Christine’s cancer had returned, and this time it was in both lungs.
Christine says she now feels like she’s “living on borrowed time” and is determined to make the most of her young family for as long as she can. Mum-of-two Christine, from Bristol, said: “To be honest, I was s**t scared when I was diagnosed – now I don’t feel like I can let myself plan too far ahead.
“As the mum of a young family, I hope to live to see my daughters go to school. But I’m very much living my life in three-month chunks – between each scan.”
Christine said it was in 2020 when she noticed she had a throbbing pain in her right foot and saw it was slightly swollen. She said she couldn’t get an in-person appointment with a GP due to lockdown restrictions – so booked in a session with a private physiotherapist, as recommended by some friends.
The mum was diagnosed by the physiotherapist with peroneal tendonitis – a condition which means the tendons on the outside of the ankle are inflamed.
She said: “We were all under the misapprehension it was a running injury. I’d been receiving steroid injections before Sophie was born, in June 2021. I couldn’t carry on with the injections during my pregnancy – but I picked them back up just afterwards.”
After giving birth at Southmead Hospital, Christine received an ultrasound on her right foot to check the progress of her injury. Christine’s doctor told her she hadn’t been suffering from tendonitis, but instead had a mass on her foot.
She was referred back to her GP and booked in for an MRI. She said: “They didn’t tell me how large the mass was – I don’t think my doctor wanted to say too much. I just wanted to get to the route of the pain so I was like ‘OK, fine – I’m not too concerned’.”
In December 2021, after months of tests, Christine was referred to the Nuffield Health Centre, Oxford, for a biopsy. One month later, she was told she had stage four angiosarcoma – a rare and aggressive type of cancer.
Christine had her surgery to remove the tumour in March 2022. She said: “My scans all looked positive, for a year afterwards. I got pregnant with my second daughter, Chloe, now two, in mid-2022 – and I wasn’t able to get any scans in the meantime.
“After she was born, in February 2023, a scan confirmed our worst fears – there had been a recurrence of the cancer. I was petrified, because I knew it meant the operation had failed – and I’d need an amputation.”
Christine’s below-the-knee amputation took place in June 2023 and she enjoyed a cancer-free life for one year. But in June 2024, the day of Chloe’s first birthday, Christine received the news that the cancer had metastasised to her lungs.
Christine has undergone multiple operations in the last year to remove the tumours, and has lost one-third of her right lung. She hasn’t been told anything about her prognosis but is determined to live her life to the full, in three-month chunks.
She’s now training to ride the Tour de Four bike ride on September 7, fundraising for Cancer Research.
“People have asked me why I’m not raising money for my specific type of cancer – but we’re all facing the same sort of thing,” she said. “It’s a s**t disease – and we want to eliminate it in all forms.”