The Star: December 14, 2017

8
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Thursday December 14 2017
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Fire rages, homes at risk
Well known teacher faces another
Chris Todd has just retired after teaching for 31 years at Christchurch Boys’
High School. She also has terminal cancer – shattering to most, Toddy, as
she is affectionately known, is taking it in her stride. Julia Evans reports
ACTIVE:
Retired
school
teacher
Chris
Todd has
inoperable
cancer.
She is now
working on
her bucket
list. PHOTO:
MARTIN
HUNTER
CHRIS TODD knew she had
cancer before her doctor said the
word.
The Christchurch Boys’ High
School maths and athletics
teacher, known as Toddy, figured
it out after being sent for blood
tests and CT scans. From the
stomach down, then from the
neck down, then just in her liver.
“I didn’t drink, I wasn’t
overweight. There shouldn’t
have been anything wrong,” she
said.
She was referred to an
oncologist.
“A little voice in my head said
something wasn’t right . . . I
hadn’t been told it was cancer
but I was seeing an oncologist. I
knew by that stage,” she said.
It was on April 10, 2014, when
her doctor finally said she had a
gastrointestinal neuroendocrine
tumour.
“I said yeah, alright. I know . . .
the doctor said start working on
your bucket list.”
She was told it had spread and
she was terminal. There are 27
tumours in her hip bone – she
calls them The Fockers.
The cancer is inoperable,
it’s the same kind that Apple
founder Steve Jobs died of in
2011.
“When I was told it was a
rare form of cancer I said good.
I wouldn’t want the garden
variety,” Miss Todd said. “I
went and told my friends, it is
cancer but it’s no big deal. I can
still remember the look on their
faces.”
She said she feels blessed that
they can’t be operated on. “In my
opinion, the less you’re cut open,
the better.”
Miss Todd has now retired
after 31 years at CBHS, teaching
maths and a time as head of
sport.
She said it was a difficult
decision to make as the school
had been her life since 1986. But
she won’t really be leaving.
“I’ve set up in my will for my
money to go into a scholarship
for boys’ high runners,” she
said.
Miss Todd’s entire estate will
go towards helping athletic and
multi-sport students attend
events they might not otherwise
afford, following her death.
But since her diagnosis, the
active Sumner resident has been
doing everything in her power to
finish her bucket list.
Which has included several
trips to cycle the Alpes d’Huez
section of the Tour de France.
Her oncologist said she would
feel better just having coffee with
her friends at home. But instead
of heeding the advice, Miss Todd
made it her mission.
“I sent a photo of me at the top
of the Alpes d’Huez. It’s in the
waiting room of the clinic now,”
she said.
And she’s got plans to go back
next year. “Hopefully, I’ll die
coming off my bike on a hill in
France.”
Cycling is a relatively new thing
for Miss Todd, she had competed
solely as a runner until 2008
when she started riding.
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