Sir Chris Hoy provides update amid terminal cancer battle as Olympic legend shares inspiring message
The Commonwealth Games and Olympic legend has spoken out amid his terminal cancer diagnosis.
Olympics legend Sir Chris Hoy has revealed he and his family are ‘in a nice spot’ just under a year after he announced he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The 49-year-old became an icon of British sport throughout a glittering career that garnered 11 world titles and two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and 2006. However, it was at the Olympics where Hoy is best remembered as the Edinburgh-born cyclist won six gold medals across the Track time trial, Team sprint, Keirin and Sprint at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 games.
Hoy’s impact on sport was recognised by the BBC when he was named as BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2008 and he also received a BBC Sports Personality Lifetime Achievement award six years later. Hoy is also a two-time BBC Sports Scotland Sports Personality of the Year award winner after being honoured in 2003 and 2008.
Hoy continued to play a part in cycling after his retirement in 2013 as he became a pundit for the BBC on their coverage of the Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games - but he confirmed he was stepping away after being diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February last year. Hoy spoke publicly of his diagnosis in October as he revealed it has spread to his bones and was now terminal after he was given between two and four years to live.
Despite the sadness of that news, Hoy has remained positive and expressed his determination to change the way people view a stage 4 cancer diagnosis by continuing to live his family life in the same way he has.
He told The Sunday Times: “I want to show people that their preconceptions — and my own preconceptions — of stage 4 are not what they thought. But, touch wood, it doesn’t feel as though they’ve been massively affected by it. They’ve always been a bit frustrated with people coming up, wanting a photograph of Daddy. Now they’re like, ‘Oh, is it because of the cancer? "I think they understand that cancer is part of our lives. It’s not something that really scares them, they don’t really talk about it much, it’s just there.
“You want them to only remember you as the perfect father who always says yes if they want an ice cream, or yes if they get on the iPad, or whatever. And you realise that that phase is very short. It feels like the family routine is as it was before, which I think is remarkable, really. That will definitely change, obviously, but I think for now we’re just getting on with life, and it just feels like we’re in a nice spot."