‘The treatment has worked really well’ – Olympic hero Sir Chris Hoy gives cancer update after ‘unimaginable’ year
SIR CHRIS HOY has given an update on his condition following what’s been an “unimaginable” year.
The British cycling hero, 48, revealed in October that his prostate cancer is terminal.
Hoy was given two to four years to live by doctors.
Following this incredibly difficult news, the Scot has approached his condition with inspiring positivity.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Hoy said: “I’m doing well. The best shape I’ve been in for over a year. I’m physically not in any pain at all.
“Treatment has worked really well, everything is stable and I couldn’t have responded better to it.
“So basically in the current situation – the best-case scenario – I’m very grateful. It’s been an unimaginable year.
“Eighteen months ago, if you told me this is what was coming up, you couldn’t have imagined it, but that’s life, isn’t it?
“You get curveballs. It’s how you deal with it, and how you make a plan and move forward.
“I’ve been so lucky to have genuinely amazing people around me, from family, friends, medical support, the general public.”
Prostate cancer symptoms
Symptoms of prostate cancer can include:
- needing to pee more frequently, often during the night
- needing to rush to the toilet
- difficulty in starting to pee (hesitancy)
- straining or taking a long time while peeing
- weak flow
- feeling that your bladder has not emptied fully
- blood in urine or blood in semen
Source: NHS
Following his own heartbreaking diagnosis, Hoy has dedicated his time to helping others.
He added: “For me, my purpose is spreading awareness about it, trying to get men to go and get checked.
“It’s a very simple thing to deal with if you catch it early enough.
“I realise how far I’ve come now. There’s no way I could have sat here talking to you six months ago. I would have been a gibbering wreck.
“The overall hope was that it would help people, not just people going through a cancer diagnosis.
“But that you can get through the most extreme situations and pop out the other end, whilst you still have hope and are able to live your life.”
‘I STILL FIND HOPE’
The six-time Olympic gold medallist recently attended the Sports Personality of the Year awards alongside wife Sarra.
He inspired viewers with a rousing speech at the event.
Hoy has also appeared on Elizabeth Day’s “How to Fail” podcast.
On how he approaches his illness, he said: “I still find hope. It doesn’t mean that the hope is that I’m going to survive this, because I’m not.
“But the hope was, and has come true, that I’m back to living again, back to enjoying each day – because none of us know what’s coming in the future, we have today and that’s it.
“I’ve been able to get back to living again, which seemed so unlikely a year ago. So lean on your family, lean on your friends – focus on what you can do, focus on what you need to do as well.
“I think trying to let go of unnecessary stresses and worries and just focusing on the important ones and everything you can do today and there’s still a lot of life left to be lived.”
How Chris Hoy went from lad on £5 bike inspired by ET to 6-time Olympic champion
By Jonathan Rose
SIR Chris Hoy began cycling at the age of six after he was inspired by the 1982 film ET.
Before he moved on to track cycling, he rode a BMX bike until the age of 15.
Sir Chris was ranked second in Britain, fifth in Europe and ninth in the World.
His dad picked up a £5 bike from a jumble sale – four years later Sir Chris was competing in the semi-final of a BMX world championship race.
“I was six when I saw ET,” he told The Guardian in 2020. “It changed my life. I wasn’t interested in cycling at all before.”
“The bikes I’d seen in Edinburgh just seemed functional things for getting from A to B,” continued Hoy, who grew up in Murrayfield.
“Then I saw those BMX bikes on screen and I was hooked. It wasn’t the scene where they cycle across the sky, but when they get chased by the police and they’re doing jumps and skidding round corners.
“It was the most exciting thing I’d ever seen. I wanted to do that.”
Four years later he became part of the British national squad.
A world championship medal came in 1999 with silver in the team sprint.
Sir Chris went on to become the second most decorated Olympic cyclist of all time.