We are The Christie magazine Oct 2025

Patient stories

Ann Lally Ann Lally, a 69-year-old former

childminder from Stockport, is doing well and has recently welcomed her first grandchild – a boy called Arthur – a year after being told she could only have 6 to 12 months to live following a diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer that had spread to her lungs and liver. Ann, who has two grown-up children – Becky (40) and Michael (39 and Arthur’s dad) – had six months of fortnightly chemotherapy, which she finished in February this year. She now returns to The Christie every three months for a check-up. Her tumours have shrunk by 42% since she started treatment and her latest scan shows they are still stable. Ann’s diagnosis in June 2024 came just three months after her husband Mike, whom she had been with since she was 16, died from a heart attack. He had also been diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in 2023 but was unable to receive treatment because of a lung condition. “I didn’t have any symptoms other than a tummy ache, so to be told that I not only had cancer, but the same type as my husband was both shocking and devastating. My kids came with me to my first appointment, where they heard that I might only have six months to live. They’d just lost their dad, and now they were faced with losing me as well; it was almost unbearable. “Becky and Michael kept me going. I wanted to keep things as normal as possible for them after all they’d been through. I decided right at the beginning that I was going to be positive, carry on as normal, and enjoy my life, and that is what I have been doing ever since.” A few weeks into treatment, Michael told Ann he and his wife were expecting their first child. “I love being a nana. My son and daughter-in-law also live in Stockport, so I am looking forward to being involved in Arthur’s life for as long as possible. I can’t put how I feel into words. I’ve been given this extra time and I’m treasuring every single second of it.”

"I decided right at the beginning that I was going to be positive, carry on as normal, and enjoy my life, and that is what I have been doing ever since."

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