Sir Chris Hoy has discussed just how he dealt with being diagnosed with incurable cancer
Olympic legend Sir Chris Hoy says refused to let his cancer diagnosis define him. Sir Chris has admitted that he struggled to stop thoughts of living with stage four cancer dominating his mornings after he was told he had the illness in 2023.
The cycling icon’s cancer has since spread to his bones, and in 2024, doctors warned him he had between two and four years left to live. The 50-year-old amassed 37 medals throughout a remarkable career as a track cyclist, amongst them six Olympic gold medals.
Appearing on the Breast Cancer Now podcast, Sir Chris spoke candidly about how he came to terms with the news that he had incurable cancer – and how he wouldn’t allow it to consume him.
“No one knows what’s coming tomorrow, so enjoy today and make the most of it,” he said. “In terms of the terminology and what stage four means. Stage four, metastatic, is spread from a primary source. It’s spread around the body and it’s not something you can truly get rid of.
“You can get to a stage where the scans are clear, which is amazing if you can get to that point, but it doesn’t mean it won’t come back.
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“It will come back at some stage. But it’s about controlling that and finding ways to live with your cancer and try and not let it dictate who you are and not let it be the first thing you think about in the morning when you wake up, or the last thing you think about before you go to sleep at night. I feel that took me, probably about six months, maybe more?”
Explaining how little he understood about his condition when diagnosed, he said: “I was one of those people that didn’t know [about incurable cancer] it was explained to me in one sentence, ‘You have incurable cancer, it’s treatable, but it’s incurable,’ so in the space of one sentence my whole world had been turned upside down and all hope had been taken away.
“I guess it’s then up to you to rebuild, find that hope and that way forward. There’s no easy way of hearing that information and getting your head around it. It takes time as a kind of grieving process.
“You’re grieving the life that you thought you had ahead of you and how it was going to pan out, but none of us knows what’s coming tomorrow. And that’s not a morbid thing. It should be a positive thing to remind us to enjoy today and to free ourselves from a lot of the things we worry about.”
Sir Chris, who is organising another Tour de 4 charity cycling event in September, following last year’s inaugural race which raised over £3.1million, maintains an incredible resilience, saying he attempts remain in control of a devastating situation.
He added: “It’s not a sudden day where it stops happening. Scan times, blood tests, and medical meetings, it comes back to the surface. When you walk into the oncologist’s office, it’s not a nice feeling waiting to get news about whatever the latest state of play is. Stage four, to me, is something that you will live with for the rest of your life.
“We don’t get to choose what happens to us, nobody does, but we can choose how we respond to those situations and that’s something I repeat to myself when it’s difficult. You have to understand what you control. If you’re fighting against the things that are out of your control, then you’re never going to be happy, or you’re never going to be settled or make the most of whatever situation you’re in.
“You can still fight for yourself and fight for your situation. There are things you can’t change and you have to accept that and this has really brought that into focus.”
