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Sir Chris Hoy has revealed the double tragedy his family faced when his wife was diagnosed with an aggressive, incurable condition just weeks before he found out he had terminal cancer.
The 48-year-old six-time Olympic cycling champion revealed his cancer diagnosis in February, but kept his prognosis private until he recently announced that he has two to four years left to live.
In his forthcoming memoir All That Matters: My Toughest Race Yet, Hoy disclosed that just weeks before he learnt he had stage four tumours in his shoulder, pelvis, hip, spine and rib, his wife, Sarra, was diagnosed with “active and aggressive” multiple sclerosis after her doctor investigated a tingling sensation in her face and tongue.
Speaking in a new interview about those heartbreaking weeks when they received the life-altering news, Hoy said it was “brutal”
“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,” he told The Sunday Times. “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.”
On her worse days, Sarra, whose condition is incurable and degenerative, can struggle to fit her key in the door.
However, Hoy said she is enthusiastic about running, going to the gym and remaining positive about both of their conditions.
He said of his wife: “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.’”
He met Sarra, a lawyer from Edinburgh, on a night out in 2006, and they married in 2010. They welcomed their first child, Callum, in 2014, and their daughter, Chloe, in 2017.
MS is a chronic condition that affects the brain and spinal cord and cannot be cured, but medicines and other treatments can help alleviate symptoms that include extreme tiredness, vision problems and difficulty with walking or balance.
Hoy’s children know nothing of their mother’s MS, and while they know their father’s cancer is incurable, they have not yet been told that it’s terminal. He tells them: “Daddy will get more treatment and we will deal with it as it comes.”
“I never want to lie to them. But there are certain things you don’t need to tell them straight away,” Hoy said.
Speaking about sharing the truth about their diagnoses publicly, Hoy said it felt like “taking off a cloak”.
“I just keep reminding myself, it will be a net-positive outcome. I’ll be able to take off this cloak of trying to hide the secrets that Sarra and I have had to shoulder for so long.”
Last September, Hoy thought he had strained his shoulder when his physiotherapist referred him for a scan. He expected doctors would tell him to lay off lifting heavy weights in the gym, but was instead told doctors had found a tumour in his shoulder – and further scans showed them in other parts of the body.
He began chemotherapy in November, and told the public about his diagnosis in February, but kept his prognosis private.
“As unnatural as it feels, this is nature,” Hoy said of his diagnosis. “You know, we were all born and we all die, and this is just part of the process.
“You remind yourself, ‘aren’t I lucky that there is medicine I can take that will fend this off for as long as possible’. But most of the battle for me with cancer hasn’t been physical. For me, it has been in my head.”
The former track cyclist is an 11-time world champion as well as a six-time Olympic champion, who competed for Great Britain at four Olympic Games between 2000 and 2012.
Hoy is Scotland’s most successful Olympian and has the second-most British gold medals behind Jason Kenny.
