Sir Chris Hoy's wife diagnosed with incurable disease as Olympian battles terminal cancer
Olympian Sir Chris Hoy has bravely shared his battle with terminal cancer and told of his wife's own devastating diagnosis
by Lucy Needham, Kali Lindsay · ChronicleLiveSir Chris Hoy stunned the sporting world last night as he revealed the cancer diagnosis he had previously shared is terminal.
The six-time Olympic gold medallist said that he is expected to live between two and four years. After going to a doctor with a pain in his shoulder he believed was a gym injury, the father-of-two was told he had prostate cancer which had metastasised to tumours in his shoulder, pelvis, hip, spine and ribs.
Doctors told Chris, 48, it was stage 4 cancer. "And just like that, I learn how I will die," Chris writes in his new book.
However, heartbreakingly for the family, Chris' wife Sarra has since been diagnosed with an aggressive form of Multiple sclerosis in an earth-shattering double blow for the family, the Mirror reports.
Just months after Chris learned his fate, Sarra's GP ordered a scan to investigate a tingling sensation in her face and tongue. Sarra was given her results in November, but didn’t tell her husband until December that it could be MS.
In an extract of his new book All That Matters, shared with The Times this weekend, Chris writes: "It was. Another scan just before Christmas confirmed that Sarra had “very active and aggressive” MS and needed urgent treatment.
“It’s the closest I’ve come to, like, you know, why me? Just, what? What’s going on here? It didn’t seem real. It was such a huge blow, when you’re already reeling. You think nothing could possibly get worse. You literally feel like you’re at rock bottom, and you find out, oh no, you’ve got further to fall. It was brutal," said Chris.
Sarra had a choice between more potentially effective but riskier new treatments and low-risk but less effective options, the couple have chosen the latter.
Chris said on her worst days Sarra now struggles to put a key in the door, but refuses to be down about the diagnosis. “She says all the time, ‘How lucky are we? We both have incurable illnesses for which there is some treatment. Not every disease has that. It could be a lot worse.’ ”
Unlike Chris' illness, where the couple made the decision to tell their children directly about the cancer, their daughter and son know nothing about Sarra's MS.
“I never want to lie to them. But there are certain things you don’t need to tell them straight away," said dad Chris who shares son, Callum, and a daughter, Chloe with Sarra who he married in 2010.
The former track cyclist also admitted that many of his and Sarra's friends are yet to have been told about her diagnosis, but he was prepared to have discussions now that his tell-all book has been made public this weekend.
The star said he planned to cope by putting his phone away until he was ready to speak.
Chris' revelations this weekend comes after he first revealed his cancer back in February. He has now revealed he was 'forced' to do so after being told someone was going to leak the news before him.
While Chris shared his health battle, he did not share that it was cancer until now. At that time, Hoy said he was “going really well” and was “optimistic, positive and surrounded by love for which I’m truly grateful” after his diagnosis in 2023.
Hoy was a pundit for the BBC covering the Paris 2024 Olympics in the summer.
During his career on the track, he won six Olympic gold medals, 11 world championships and 34 World Cup titles by the time he retired from competitive racing in 2013.
Only his former team-mate Sir Jason Kenny has won more Olympic gold medals for Great Britain.
Edinburgh-born Hoy took up cycling at the age of 14 and won his first Olympic medal, a team sprint silver, at Sydney in 2000.
Hoy followed that up by winning gold in the 1km track time trial at Athens in 2004.
He added to his gold medal haul by winning three more at Beijing four years later and two at London 2012.
Hoy was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours List after his success at the Beijing Olympics.
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