Sir Chris Hoy is a busy man and a man on several missions. While sadly no cure currently exists for Sir Chris’ cancer, the six-time Olympic Champion has delivered a hugely upbeat update on his health.
He heartbreakingly revealed late last year that he has incurable Stage 4 prostate cancer with a prognosis of between two to four years to live.
His treatment plan has gone well though and he’s told Sky Sports: “I’ve entered a bit of a stability stage at the moment. I’m feeling good, exercising, riding the bike, busy and most importantly cancer is not the first thing I think about in the morning when I wake up and it’s not the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night.
“I feel good, you know, I’m on constant medications, constant treatment, but it’s not interfering too much with my life. And the most important thing is it’s working, so I’m stable at the moment, everything’s good. So making hay while the sun shines.”
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Sky Sports’ Geraint Hughes speaks to Sir Chris Hoy about his experiences living with cancer
Sir Chris was never quite sure about how going public with his diagnosis would affect him or his family, but reflecting on the past six months it’s been a decision that he’s felt vindicated by.
“I didn’t think about what the potential outcomes of going public with my diagnosis might be. But when you hear from people, when you speak to people who tell you that they have gone and had a PSA test off the back of your diagnosis, they have gone and they’ve found that they had no symptoms, no problems at all, but they had a check and it turns out they’ve got cancer too, but they’ve caught it early enough to treat it and to cure it.
“It makes sense of the situation, it makes sense of my situation.
“That lifts you up a huge amount. It gives you hope, it gives you a purpose. I can’t believe the position I’m in now compared to 18 months ago.
“I never imagined that I’d be able to get to this point where I’m actually just living life and not just living life, but actually appreciating it more than ever. Able to enjoy the little things.
“It’s not just about doing bucket list stuff and doing massive things, it’s just about appreciating the mundane fun of life, the mundane elements of life which can be wonderful that you don’t necessarily appreciate when you’re on this treadmill of next, next, next, what we’re doing tomorrow? Never mind tomorrow, enjoy today!”
700 per cent increase in Prostate Cancer testing after ‘Bigger 180’ World Darts Championship partnership with Prostate Cancer UK
When Luke Littler lifted the Paddy Power World Darts Championship trophy in January, it was Sir Chris who handed him his trophy and crowned Littler World Champion. He’d never been to the Darts before, but loved the passion the incredible atmosphere and the skill of Littler et al.
Hoy wasn’t just there to watch though, as part of the ‘Bigger 180’ charity campaign every dart thrown had huge significance as ‘180’s raised £1,000 and 9-dart checkouts saw a £60,000 donation to Prostate Cancer UK.
By the end of the tournament over a £1m had been raised and perhaps more significantly GP’s saw a huge increase in men seeking appointments to get their prostate checked.
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Watch the electric walk-ons from Luke Littler and Michael van Gerwen ahead of the World Darts Championship final
Hoy said; “It was the number of men, who off the back of that campaign went to the online risk checker. Thirty seconds, three questions, you assess your risk, high, medium or low. If you’re high-risk, you go to your GP and you get a check. And, you know, that’s a real target demographic (as) you got into people’s living rooms of blokes that don’t want to talk about things like that.
“It was a 700% increase in men going to the GPs to get prostate and PSA tests done so, as I said before, it feels you suddenly realise there was a purpose, there’s a bit of meaning behind what’s happening.”
Hoy witnessed Littler beat Michael van Gerwen in the Final, an experience in itself.
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Highlights of Luke Littler against Michael van Gerwen in the final of the World Darts Championship
“I’d never seen it live before. It’s incredible, the precision and it’s not like you go to Wimbledon and there’s silence when they’re about to serve and everybody’s hushed, you’re in this incredible atmosphere, the noise, there’s singing, there’s cheering and they’ve got to try, you know, the margins between success and failure are so small!
“The atmosphere felt like all the good stuff from football, but with none of the kind of tribal or none of the potential aggro. It was just a party atmosphere.”
Tour De 4 – £1m target this September
Hoy was never too sure if his illness would prevent him from doing one of the things in life he most loves – getting on a bike. However, Sir Chris has remained active and fit and with his treatment working well at the moment, he rides several times a week – something Sir Chris believes has been beneficial in managing his condition.
Having seen the research and work being done around awareness, testing and potentially one day a cure, Hoy knows the level of funding required is almost infinite.
So September 7 in Glasgow will see the inaugural “Tour de 4”. It’s a cycling play on words with the ‘4’ standing for Stage 4 cancers – considered the most advanced stage of cancer and unlikely that a cure exists now.
“It’s a mass participation charity cycle ride event, starting and finishing in Glasgow,” Hoy said.
“It’s open to 5,000 people. It’s not just for super keen cyclists on fancy bikes and all the like, it’s for anyone that’s got a bike, you’re welcome.
“There are different graded rides, so the longest ride is 57 miles and it’s a bit of a hilly route. Then a shorter slightly flatter route, we also have a one km closed loop next to the velodrome that families can come down and you can ride around and round multiple times.
“And we also have static bikes in the track centre and they’re set up and they’ve got screens and you can book in for 20 minutes, you can book in for one minute so literally anybody of any physical ability or fitness, whatever their health is like at the moment, they can feel it they can get involved.
“The aim is to raise a million pounds for cancer charities across the UK, but I think equally important from the fundraising is the changing or challenging perceptions of what stage four cancer diagnosis can look like.
“There will be many people riding on the day who will have stage four cancer, like myself, who if you saw them in the street, you wouldn’t necessarily know that they’ve been given a terminal diagnosis.
“So this is something to challenge that perception and to give hope to people who have been recently given a diagnosis similar to that to say, well, here are people like me who are active getting involved in stuff that I didn’t think you could if you had a serious cancer diagnosis.”
“So go to www.tourde4.com and we’ll see you on September 7. And the whole plan with this is raise a million pounds now, but this is not just a one-off. We hope it’s going to be an annual thing that we’re going to have.”
This week has seen the final wave of places released for the ‘Tour de 4’ on September 7. To sign up go to https://www.tourde4.com or ‘Insta/tour_de4’
