BMX Olympian Kye Whyte might be full of joy on the ice, but behind the smile lies a heartbreaking secret about his beloved mum.
The Dancing on Ice star revealed that his mum Tracey is battling leukaemia.
He opened up about her fight with the illness on Instagram in a loving tribute to the woman who 'birthed him,' where he asked his fans to "pray" for her.
Under a photo of his mother, he wrote: "Hi guys. This is my mum Tracey. She birthed me, raised me and looked after me well.
"Right now she is very ill and has been diagnosed with leukaemia. I want to ask everyone to pray and have her in your hearts.
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"Just one thing I’ll beg for anyone to do is just have my mum in your hearts and prayers, thank you.
"Let’s fight mum."
Kye credits his success to his mum and dad, Nigel, who set him on the path to glory.
He was just three years old when he started riding BMX at Brixton BMX Club in Brockwell Park, south London.
Later, alongside his brothers Daniel and Tre Whyte, he joined the Peckham BMX Club, where dad Nigel was a coach and co-founder, and his mum Tracey was the secretary.
Kye admitted he struggled with his mum's diagnosis at first and that at times it has been "too much to cope with."
He said: "I can’t really deal with it, to be honest. When the doctor was telling us how severe it is, I just said, ‘Mum, I love you. But I need to go.’
"It was too much to cope with but I regret not being there now. If anyone reads this and they’re going through the same thing, just try not to do what I did – just be there for your mum.
"If I’m being honest, I’m still trying to build up the courage so that I can handle it but no one is strong enough for their mum to pass away, surely?"
His mum is a huge inspiration behind wanting to go on Dancing On Ice, as he says he wants to make her proud.
He said: "Doing this show, I think, is making her proud and making her fight even more because she’s looking at me and thinking, ‘Yeah, that’s my son. I want to see him achieve good’."
Kye was forced to pull out of last weekend's movie night due to a knee injury he sustained in rehearsals, which ended up being worse than expected.
Kye's partner Tippy Packard took to her Instagram Story to announce the news that he had dislocated it.
She said: "Hi guys, we just got some news. So we were thinking that it was not a big deal and Kye just kind of fell. But guess what actually happened?"
"I dislocated it. We'll be skating this weekend but we'll be really careful", Kye added.
She detailed: "He'll be wearing a knee brace. We're going to be taking it easy but obviously, we went to put on a show for you guys. So we'll see you on Sunday!"
However, this isn't the first injury Kye has been forced to overcome.
At the age of 13, he suffered a horrifying crash that left him in a five-day induced coma with a bleed on the brain.
He was unable to ride for a year while he recovered from his injuries.
"I had a bleed on the brain and they put me in an induced coma for five days. Just waiting for me to wake up," he told The Guardian.
"When I woke up and I was able to go to the toilet by myself, I could leave. On my first try, I actually fell down. That’s all I remember.
"To be fair, I don’t know why I still do it, but it’s obviously worked out now."
After joining the Team GB Cycling Team in 2017 alongside his brother Tre, he won a European Championship silver medal in 2018 before recording his first Supercross World Cup victory in Manchester a year later.
He then went on to win a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
And Kye has got his hopes up that he's going to win Dancing On Ice too.
"I want to be the best at everything," he admits. "For me, it’s all about learning something new and then trying to be the best at it.
"Maybe I can win and be like, ‘I’m the best on Dancing On Ice, what’s next?'
"I think it’s a bit toxic how competitive I am, but that’s just who I am, it’s who we are as a family. The longer I can stay and see other celebrities go, that’s when I’ll be like, ‘I need to beat them!’"
- Dancing On Ice is on ITV tonight at 6pm
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