{"id":84381,"date":"2025-05-08T10:37:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/84381\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T10:37:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:37:12","slug":"bristol-mum-loses-leg-after-running-injury-found-to-be-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/84381\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol mum loses leg after ‘running injury’ found to be cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has now spread to her lungsNews<\/a>Oliver Astley<\/strong> Content editor, Alex Driscoll<\/strong><\/a> Breaking news reporter and Hannah Van De Peer, SWNS<\/strong><\/p>\n

10:52, 08 May 2025<\/p>\n

\"ChristineChristine Lote had her leg amputated after a ‘running injury’ turned out to be stage four cancer.(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

A mum had her lower leg amputated and part of her right lung removed after a “running injury” turned out to be stage four cancer.<\/p>\n

Christine Lote, 41, was an avid runner before her mystery injury – which left her with a swollen right foot.<\/p>\n

Assuming she’d hurt herself while out jogging, she saw a physiotherapist for two years and received steroid injections.<\/p>\n

But after the birth of her daughter, Sophie, in June 2021, she had a routine ultrasound on her foot while in Southmead<\/a> Hospital, Bristol – which revealed a large mass on her bone.<\/p>\n

In January 2022, a biopsy confirmed the mass was cancerous – and after a failed attempt to remove it, the only option left was to amputate the leg below the knee in May 2023.<\/p>\n

After one year cancer-free, a routine MRI showed Christine’s cancer<\/a> had returned – this time in both lungs.<\/p>\n

Now Christine feels like she’s “living on borrowed time” and she’s determined to make the most out of her young family for as long as she can.<\/p>\n

\"ChristineChristine Lote, pictured left, with her family.(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

Mum-of-two Christine, a solicitor, 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.<\/p>\n

“As the mum of a young family, I hope to live to see my daughters go to school.<\/p>\n

“But I’m very much living my life in three-month chunks – between each scan.”<\/p>\n

In 2020, Christine noticed she had a throbbing pain in her right foot and saw it was slightly swollen.<\/p>\n

She found 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.<\/p>\n

The mum was diagnosed by the physiotherapist with peroneal tendonitis – a condition which means the tendons on the outside of the ankle are inflamed.<\/p>\n

“We were all under the misapprehension it was a running injury,” Christine said.<\/p>\n

“I’d been receiving steroid injections before Sophie was born in June 2021.<\/p>\n

“I couldn’t carry on with the injections during my pregnancy – but I picked them back up just afterwards.”<\/p>\n

\"ChristineChristine with her partner.(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

After giving birth at Southmead Hospital, Christine received a routine ultrasound on her right foot to check the progress of her injury.<\/p>\n

Christine’s doctor told her she hadn’t been suffering from tendonitis – but instead had a mass on her foot.<\/p>\n

She was referred back to her GP, and booked in for an MRI.<\/p>\n

“They didn’t tell me how large the mass was – I don’t think my doctor wanted to say too much,” Christine said.<\/p>\n

“I just wanted to get to the route of the pain so I was like ‘OK, fine – I’m not too concerned’.”<\/p>\n

In December 2021, after months of tests, Christine was referred to the Nuffield Health Centre, Oxford, for a biopsy.<\/p>\n

One month later, she was told she had stage four angiosarcoma – a rare and aggressive type of cancer.<\/p>\n

Christine had her surgery to remove the tumour in March 2022 – and described the procedure as “taking an ice cream scoop to the mass”.<\/p>\n

She said: “My scans all looked positive, for a year afterwards.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“After she was born, in February 2023, a scan confirmed our worst fears – there had been a recurrence of the cancer.<\/p>\n

“I was petrified, because I knew it meant the operation had failed – and I’d need an amputation.”<\/p>\n

\"Christine'sChristine’s leg was amputated in June 2023.(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

Christine’s below-the-knee amputation took place in June 2023 and she enjoyed a cancer-free life for one year.<\/p>\n

She received a scan on her lungs every three months – because the cancer has a high risk of spreading to other organs.<\/p>\n

\"ChristineChristine is now fundraising for Cancer Research.(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

In June 2024, the day of Chloe’s first birthday, Christine received the news that the cancer had metastasised to her lungs.<\/p>\n

Christine has undergone multiple operations in the last year to remove the tumours – and has lost one-third of her right lung.<\/p>\n

She hasn’t been told anything about her prognosis – but is determined to live her life to the full, in three-month chunks.<\/p>\n

She’s now training to ride the Tour de Four bike ride on September 7 – fundraising for Cancer Research.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“It’s a s**t disease – and we want to eliminate it in all forms.”<\/p>\n

Christine’s fundraiser can be found here: https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/my-tour-de-4-fundraiser-to-fight-cancer-zwnm5<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has now spread to her lungsNewsOliver Astley Content editor, Alex Driscoll Breaking news reporter and Hannah Van…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,105,10963,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-84381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-southmead","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114471780792872667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}