Mum 'making most of time' as she's unlikely to see girls finish primary school

Mum 'making most of time' as she's unlikely to see girls finish primary schoolChristine's diagnosis started with a pain in her footCommentsNewsNeil Shaw Assistant Editor (Money and Lifestyle)08:07, 22 Apr 2026View 5 ImagesChristine Lote is unlikely to live to see her children finish primary schoolA devastated mum says she 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. 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,” said Christine, a solicitor from Bristol.‌“My immediate thought was that my girls aren’t going to remember me.”‌View 5 ImagesChristine and her daughter ChloeChristine 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...