Olympic hero Hoy reveals his cancer diagnosis has already saved a life
Sir Chris Hoy has urged more men to seek free tests for prostate cancer in the hope that his terminal diagnosis can at least save others’ lives.
The six-time Olympic champion cyclist announced last month that his cancer is incurable, seven months after he first revealed he was undergoing chemotherapy.
Hoy’s illness has already helped one friend to catch prostate cancer in time and the 48-year-old wants his legacy to be raising awareness of the tests readily available.
The NHS currently offers free prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests to all men aged 50 or older or anyone with symptoms of a prostate problem.
Health secretary Wes Streeting has said that the government is actively considering lowering the qualifying age for PSA tests.
“Catch it before you need to have any major treatment. To me it seems a no-brainer. Reduce the age, allow more men to just go in and get a blood test,” Hoy told BBC Breakfast.
“Maybe people seeing this or hearing about my story – just by them asking their GP – will create enough of a surge of interest that people that make the decisions will go ‘you know what, we need to address this’. And in the long term this will save potentially millions of lives.
“If you’ve got family history of it like I have, if you’re over the age of 45, go and ask your doctor.
“I’ve got a friend who, when I told him my news early on confidentially, he went and got a PSA test and it turned out he had cancer. He’s had treatment and he’s been given the all-clear.”
One in eight men will develop prostate cancer and Hoy’s announcement that his was terminal prompted a 700 per cent increase in NHS searches for symptoms.
The Scot’s father and grandfather both had the illness but he did not discover his diagnosis until doctors uncovered that it had spread to his bones and he had a tumour in his shoulder.
Hoy planning cycle ride for cancer charities
Hoy says he is still exercising daily and plans to undertake a charity cycle ride next year to raise money for people with stage-four cancers.
“I’m not saying everybody’s in the same boat but there’s hope out there,” he added.
“Look at me now, six months on from finishing chemo and I’m riding my bike every day, I’m in the gym, I’m physically active, I’m not in pain.
“When people talk about battles with cancer, for me the biggest battle is between your ears.
“It’s the mental struggle, it’s the challenge to try and deal with these thoughts, deal with the implications of the news you’re given.
“Your life is turned upside down with one sentence. You’ve walked in one person and you walk out as another person.
“When you hear ‘terminal illness’, ‘terminal cancer’, you just have this image in your head of what it is, what it’s going to be like. And everybody’s different.
“Not everybody is given the time that I’ve been given – and that’s why I feel lucky. We genuinely feel lucky, as crazy as that might sound, because we’ve got the time.”