Sir Chris Hoy opens up on the heartbreaking second his spouse informed him of her MS analysis as he reveals her three-word mantra that evokes his courageous strategy to terminal most cancers battle

Sir Chris Hoy has spoken about the moment his wife Sarra told him that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Cyclist legend Hoy revealed last week that he was terminally ill with cancer and that he had been told that he may only have between two and four years left to live.

The 48-year-old cycling legend, a six-time Olympic gold medallist for Team GB, admitted in an interview with The Times that he had known his cancer was terminal for more than 12 months before sharing the news publicly.

Excerpts of Hoy’s autobiography, ‘All That Matters’, have since been published by the same newspaper.

In his upcoming book, Hoy describes the moment he learned he had cancer, as well as recalling how he learned that Sarra had MS.

Sir Chris Hoy and his wife Sarra pictured in 2016 at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin

On his own initial cancer diagnosis, he wrote: ‘The doctor turns the screen to me to reveal the scan in all its grainy detail and the tumour that is currently in my shoulder. I don’t want to look at it, as though laying my eyes on it might make it more real and horrific than it already is. I turn away, not quite willing to accept this news just yet. How can I? It’s beyond comprehension.

‘Hearing the word “cancer” has had an immediate and profound effect on me, and not just me. Next to the doctor, the nurse’s eyes fill with tears. One moment to the next is a blur and then, before I know it, I’m up and out of the chair, the appointment over. In one short moment, life has changed irrevocably.

‘All I can see in these early moments is this damning diagnosis, its finality. But Sarra is more upbeat. She hangs onto the words “years and years” and keeps repeating them to me. Gradually, I am better able to see that there will be more of a future than I thought.

‘Sarra is the centre of my life and has been from the moment we met, all those years ago. Within a few minutes of chatting to her that first evening, on a night out in Edinburgh back in 2006, I knew there and then that she was everything I was looking for.’

Sarra has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, while her husband, 46, has terminal cancer

On his wife’s medical situation, Hoy added: ‘Sarra’s unwavering love and support for me over the past year are all the more remarkable given what she too has faced. It started with a tingling in her face and tongue last summer, shortly before my own diagnosis. This led to a GP appointment. They weren’t concerned, but, following protocol, referred Sarra for an MRI. The symptoms disappeared long before an appointment date arrived, which happened to be just seven days after my own dreaded news.

‘So whilst in a daze of shock, she went off to the scan, saying it would be a chance for her to have a lie down for an hour, joking it was as close to a spa day as she’d get. Afterwards, she continued to support me wholly and completely, leading me to push all thoughts of her MRI scan away, given her symptoms had long since disappeared.

‘Then one evening in December, after our kids Callum and Chloe had gone to bed, Sarra looked serious and said she had something to tell me. I realised immediately it was something big as Sarra, always so strong in every situation, was beginning to crumble and struggling to get the words out. “Do you remember that scan I went for?” she started through tear-filled eyes. “Well, they think it might be multiple sclerosis.” I immediately broke down, distraught both by the news and the fact she’d received it without me there.

‘She went on to explain they had called her and told her over a month before. It was so hard to try to compute that she had absorbed the awfulness of this diagnosis alone, without sharing it with me, in order to protect me. I tried to let the words sink in as my mind was spinning, trying to understand what had been happening to her, all while she had been accompanying me to every one of my own hospital appointments.

‘As with my diagnosis, she was the one to bring me back to the present, trying to reassure me, saying: “Look at me, I’m fine right now, I’m here, I’m OK.”