Scots cycling hero Sir Chris Hoy has revealed that his wife was diagnosed with an incurable disease around the same time he was given the earth-shattering news his cancer was terminal.
The six-times Olympic champion said: “You literally feel like you’ve hit rock bottom. It was brutal.”
Despite telling their two young children about Chris’ illness, the couple made the decision not to tell the children that Sarra has “very active and aggressive” multiple sclerosis.
Sir Chris, 48, said: “I never want to lie to them. But there are certain things you don’t need to tell them straight away.”
The Edinburgh-born sports star shared the heart-breaking news last night that he has between two and four years to live.
After going to a doctor with a pain in his shoulder he believed was a gym injury, Chris was told he had tumours in his shoulder, pelvis, hip, spine and rib.
Doctors told him it was stage 4 cancer.
The Mirror reports that in an extract of his new book shared with The Times, he wrote: “And just like that, I learn how I will die.”
But just months after being given the devastating news, Sarra’s GP ordered a scan to investigate a tingling sensation in her face and tongue.
She was given her results in November, but didn’t tell her husband until December that it could be multiple sclerosis.
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.’”
Chris also admitted that alot 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.
Sir Chris 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.
He took up cycling at the age of 14 and won his first Olympic medal, a team sprint silver, at Sydney in 2000.
He followed that up by winning gold in the 1km track time trial at Athens in 2004 and added to his gold medal haul by winning three more at Beijing four years later and two at London 2012.
Sir Chris was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours List after his success at the Beijing Olympics.
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