British cycling icon Hoy and wife provide solace for each other's ills / Photo: ODD ANDERSEN - AFP
British cycling icon Hoy and wife provide solace for each other's ills
British cycling legend Chris Hoy, who has been diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, told The Times he and his wife Sarra, who has an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, "support each other" when one or other are in "the pit".
The 49-year-old six-time Olympic track cycling gold medalist was told he had two to four years to live in February last year, but he said he uses his "competitive spirit" to push him on with "actual events and goals".
The Scotsman said he asked Steve Peters, the psychiatrist he worked with for the majority of his professional career, to look up who had lived the longest with prostate cancer as he felt it would be too much for Sarra.
However, in other respects the 11-time world track cycling champion and his wife do address their respective conditions when one or the other is feeling low.
"We support each other," said Hoy.
"Because when she's feeling strong and if I'm feeling low then she is unmovable and she will not crumble.
"She'll talk me round and she'll make me feel better, and hopefully she would say the same in reverse when she isn't having such a great time.
"It's very rare that we're both in the pit together. It’s kind of one at a time.
"That's the unofficial rule."
Hoy, who described how being told he had stage four cancer had taken "away all the hope", draws solace from a quote by Roman philosopher Seneca: "He who worries before it is necessary suffers more than is necessary."
"I find it amazing that these guys were around thousands of years ago, and yet the stuff that they went through is still applicable," said Hoy.
"For everything that's changed in humanity, it's the same challenges we go through. They worried about the same things: they worried about their family, they worried about dying."
- 'Positive uplifting day' -
Hoy, who says the longer the passage of time since undergoing chemotherapy the more his fitness is improving, said Peters had been a constant source of comfort too.
It was him who told Hoy that he would go through 13 weeks of grieving "the life you had" post his devastating diagnosis and he called upon him again to research a delicate matter.
"I don't Google anything about my diagnosis because I just find it a terrifying thing to do," he said.
"But I also didn't want to turn my back on it, and it was too close to home for Sarra.
"So I would ask Steve questions and say: 'Look, can you go and find out about this? I don't want to find out all the other things that are around it, I want to know who's lived the longest with stage four prostate cancer.'"
Peters discovered two men diagnosed in their 60s had lived on for over two decades.
Hoy concedes he may not emulate them but he is not standing still and has organised a "Tour de 4" fundraising cycling event in Glasgow on September 7 at the velodrome named in his honour.
Other former track cycling stars Mark Cavendish and Jason Kenny along with two-time Olympic tennis champion Andy Murray and swimming great Adam Peaty will feature.
"I thought: 'I'd like to do something that reflects how I'm feeling right now, that, actually, life goes on'," he said.
"The aim is to bring that community together, and to change the perceptions of what a stage four diagnosis can look like.
"I hope it's going to be a really positive, uplifting day that while I never imagined would need to exist, off the back of the diagnosis I've had, it's something to really look forward to."
C.Abatescianni--IM
