Inside Sir Chris Hoy’s most cancers battle as he reveals terminal prognosis

An 11-time world champion with six Olympic gold medals to his name, Sir Chris Hoy is the definition of a born winner.

But for more than a year, the 48-year-old cycling legend has secretly known that there is one battle that he is going to lose.

Since February, we have known that the father-of-two was having chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

But in a devastating update on Saturday, Sir Chris – Britain’s second most decorated Olympian of all time – revealed that his cancer is terminal and that he only has ‘two to four years’ left to live.

A sporting hero who has inspired cyclists around the world, Hoy has known about his terminal diagnosis since last September, The Times reports.

Still reeling from the shock of knowing he will die, Hoy and his family were dealt a second devastating blow just two months later when his wife Sarra was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Their young children, Callum and Chloe, are now growing up with both parents battling incurable diseases. But Hoy, refusing to accept his family have been dealt a bad hand, says: ‘I still feel like we’re lucky.’

In a brand new memoir, Hoy details the excruciating pain he went through during chemotherapy sessions and how he and Sarra navigated telling their two children about his cancer.

Hoy kept his diagnosis secret from fans for several months, even revealing that he only shared that he had cancer because his ‘hand was forced’.

‘Last year I was diagnosed with cancer, which came as a huge shock, having had no symptoms up to that point,’ he revealed to his adoring fans in February.

‘I’m currently receiving treatment including chemotherapy, which thankfully is going really well….For the sake of my young family, I had hoped to keep this information private but regrettably our hand has been forced.’

The Edinburgh-born Olympic legend – on the surface – appeared to be positive about the diagnosis.

Although he conceded that it had been ‘incredibly difficult’, he said that he ‘felt fine’ and was ‘continuing to work, ride my bike and live my life as normal’.

In April, two months later, that same positive outlook was still being radiated from Hoy who revealed that he was about to have his final round of chemotherapy and was focused on recovering.

Speaking on his Sporting Misadventures podcast, the 48-year-old said: ‘I have been going through chemo for the past 18 weeks and I have got the final round coming up, which I’m very excited about to get that behind me.

‘In some ways it’s been a long old slog but in other ways it has passed relatively quickly.

‘I’m keen to get that done, start the recovery and then we have got the summer ahead with longer days. I am starting to feel a bit more optimistic.

‘It’s been a long winter but when you see the first few daffodils poking their heads out, and you know that spring is on its way, then morale is getting higher every day.’

By the Paris Olypmics in July, Hoy appeared to be improving in health and made regular appearances in the studio, giving his typically thoughtful insight into Team GB’s performances in the Velodrome.

But Hoy has now admitted that he has known about the severity of his cancer since September 2023.

What started off as a suspicion that he had strained his shoulder quickly escalated into a tragedy that has shattered a family.

After being referred by his physiotherapist for a scan, he went to the hospital alone, expecting to be told to stop lifting heavy weights for a few weeks.

But Hoy’s world turned upside down when the doctor turned to him and said: ‘I’m really sorry, there’s a tumour in your shoulder’.  Overcome with emotion, the nurse’s eyes filled with tears.

Two days later, this time with his wife Sarra by his side, he discovered that things are far worse than he could have ever imagined.

A second scan found primary cancer in his prostate, which had spread to his bones. There were further tumours found in his shoulder, pelvis, hip, spine and rib.

It was at this moment he was told he had stage 4 cancer and it was incurable.

‘And just like that, I learn how I will die,’ Hoy told The Times.

Overcome with shock, Hoy sunk to the floor, struggling to breathe. He thought he was going to be sick and became flushed and claustrophobic.

‘How long do I have?’ Hoy asked the doctor. 

With his wife, the mother of their two children, by his side, he was told ‘two to four years’.

In the following weeks, Hoy had to face another battle – how to tell his young children that their father was going to die.

The couple agreed to be as honest as they could and told Callum and Chloe, then nine and six, during dinner. 

They said that he had cancer in his shoulder and needed to have some medicine called chemotherapy. 

‘Are you going to die?’ Callum asked his father. 

Hoy told him that no one lives for ever, but that he was going ‘to be here for many, many years’.

The Olympic great, who suffered waves of panic and breathlessness in the weeks after his diagnosis, has endured a horrifying battle with chemotherapy since it began in November.

His son kept asking him if he would lose his hair, so he decided to endure the agony of a cold cap during all six rounds over 18 weeks. He describes it as worse ‘than any pain he has ever endured’. 

Aside from the excruciating pain of the cold cap, he also had a violent allergic reaction to chemo in round two which extended one session from two hours to four hours, leaving him ‘absolutely broken’.

Hoy eventually revealed his cancer diagnosis, leaving out the part that it was terminal, after a journalist asked one of Sarra’s friends if Hoy had a ‘terminal illness’.

After the chemo ended, he started to regain his physical strength again, but Hoy says the biggest battle has been ‘in my head’.

Hoy has shared the bombshell cancer diagnosis in a new memoir which also details his wife’s own shock health battle.

Weeks before Hoy’s cancer was spotted, Sarra had a scan to investigate a strange tingling sensation in her face and tongue.

Hoy admits that he forgot about it and she didn’t mention it again. In reality, Sarra had also kept her setback secret.

She was given her results in November but waited to tell her husband in December: ‘They think it might be multiple sclerosis.’

A further scan just before Christmas confirmed Sarra had ‘very active and aggressive’ MS and needed urgent treatment.

Hoy says: ‘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.’

The double setback has shattered Hoy, who admits that he has always felt like he has had ‘the Midas touch’.

He feels that everything has gone his way since his first gold medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Two years later, he met Sarra before going on to win three gold medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games – the first British man to do achieve that feat in a century.

The couple married in 2010 and had their first child in 2014, but not without complications.

Callum was born 11 weeks premature and had to spend his first nine weeks in hospital. It was so extreme that Hoy thought his son was going to die. 

Their daughter was also premature, by four weeks, but is healthy – as is Callum now.

Despite him and his wife both having incurable diseases, Hoy still admits: ‘I still feel like we’re lucky.’

Hoy won six Olympic gold medals between 2004 and 2012 – the second highest total by ant British Olympian behind Sir Jason Kenny’s seven.

He retired from cycling in 2013 and moved into motorsport, competing in the British GT Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hour.

Hoy has since immersed himself in charity work, written children’s books and looked after his children.

He has also been a regular pundit for BBC Sport’s cycling coverage.