The Queen of England awarded him a knighthood in 2008, following his six gold medals at the Olympic Games. The life of sir Chris Hoy (Edinburgh, 48 years old) was almost a fairy tale. He and his wife Sarra (Edinburgh, 40 years old), a lawyer, lived a happy life that was only partially distorted by the premature birth of their two children, although they both survived. However, last February, the former cyclist, who works as a commentator on the BBC, announced that he had cancer. In September 2023, shoulder pain led him to the doctor, who detected a tumor. He began receiving chemotherapy, and was optimistic. In July, during the Paris Games, his colleagues from the British public broadcaster received him with joy when they saw him looking very good. “I am optimistic, positive… Currently I feel good. “I continue working, riding my bike and living my life normally,” he said in that part of his memoirs, which will be published next month, which still did not reveal the whole truth.
Because he already knew a year before that he was facing something more serious. A scan after the first diagnosis found a primary cancer in the prostate, which had metastasized to the bones. He had tumors in his shoulder, pelvis, hip, spine and ribs. Now he has revealed that his illness is incurable. “According to the doctors, I was in phase 4, incurable, and so, suddenly, I found out how I am going to die.” His wife asked about the treatment; They told him there wasn’t one. “How much time do I have left?” From two to four years, they answered.
He doesn’t know why the news didn’t come out sooner, because many people close to him knew it, and he doesn’t think about who revealed the secret, but when the bubble burst, “it was a relief. It was horrible, because Pandora’s box was opened and it cannot be closed, but it was like a release of pressure,” confesses the former elite athlete to the journalist from Sunday Times Decca Aitkenhead, who has interviewed people like Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, Hillary Clinton, JK Rowling and Johnny Depp.
But the blow was much greater. His wife had gone to the doctor weeks before, because of a tingling she felt in her face and tongue. She received the diagnosis in the midst of the whirlwind of her husband’s illness. They had detected that he suffered from multiple sclerosis, which was very active and aggressive. The news was revealed in an interview with Sunday Times. “Many will hear it for the first time,” but when he heard it, “it’s the closest I’ve ever come to saying, why me? What’s going on here? “It didn’t seem real,” he says. “It was a very strong blow, when you are already reeling. You think nothing could get worse. You literally feel like you’re at rock bottom and discover that you still have to fall further. “It was brutal.” But the former cyclist comments: “She says all the time: ‘How lucky we are.’ We both have incurable diseases for which there is some treatment. Not all diseases have this treatment. It could be much worse. Fear and anxiety come from trying to predict the future, but the future is an abstract concept that we have in our minds. None of us know what’s going to happen. “All we know is that we have a finite time on this planet.”
That is why it sends an optimistic message. “What I’ve come to think is: why waste that time? Go ahead, enjoy and be grateful for what you have. I’m not saying that I am a Zen master and that I have controlled my thoughts and emotions in every situation. I don’t try to pretend that every day is wonderful. But I have genuine moments of joy. I laugh. I don’t think about that all the time. “I have returned to being myself.”
Today he receives treatment, the medications leave him tired and weak, “but you remind yourself, aren’t I lucky that there are medicines I can take to combat this for as long as possible?” Chris Hoy intends to stage an annual race between Edinburgh and Glasgow to demonstrate that, “stage 4 cancer is not the end of life, but that there is still a lot of life left to live.” On November 7, the book with his memoirs will be published: “Everything that matters: my most difficult career so far.”
