Chris Hoy gives cancer update in new screening warning to British men
Sir Chris Hoy says he is doing 'really well' in a new update on his prostate cancer.
The six-time Olympic champion revealed that he'd been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in September 2023.
A year later, Hoy confirmed that his illness was terminal after spreading to his bones and that doctors had given him between two and four years to live.
Three years on from the original diagnosis, Hoy shared a new update with BBC Scotland, confirming that he was 'doing really well' at the moment.
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"Right now life just goes on," he continued. "You could spend your time sitting worrying about the future, but that doesn't help you in any shape or form."
Hoy's update came as the former cyclist was arguing that the onus for prostate cancer awareness shouldn't fall on high-profile figures such as himself and Jeremy Clarkson.
"It shouldn't just be down to high-profile individuals like Jeremy Clarkson or myself or any number of men who've been in a similar situation," he said.
"There should be a more systematic and proactive approach to let men know about their own risk."
Hoy went on to reveal that he'd recently received a letter for a bowel screening test after turning 50, which led him to think about diagnositc tests for prostate cancer.
At the moment, there are no mass-screening methods for prostate cancer in the UK, with a recent study concluding that a mass rollout of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests would likely cause more harm than good.
Speaking about PSA tests, Hoy acknowledged it 'isn't perfect' but that there should be some form of screening.
"I understand the PSA test (a blood test that can help detect prostate cancer) isn't perfect, you know you can get results - not false positives, but it can be that men can be treated when they maybe didn't need to be treated," he said.
"But actually, I think that's not a diagnosis issue, that's a treatment issue, that's a decision for the doctors to make.
"I think knowing your situation is really important."
Referencing the fact that roughly 10,000 men a year are diagnosed with prostate cancer too late, Hoy added that there should be a process which allows men to understand their risk.
"In the short term, until something more proactive happens you've got to take it on your own shoulders," he added.
"It's not what you want to think about, and it's always the thing you push down the list of priorities. You forget about it because life's busy."
What are the signs and symptoms of prostate cancer?
According to Prostate Cancer UK, the most common symptoms of prostate cancer include:
- difficulty starting to urinate or emptying your bladder
- a weak flow when you urinate
- a feeling that your bladder hasn’t emptied properly
- dribbling urine after you finish urinating
- needing to urinate more often than usual, especially at night
- a sudden need to urinate – you may sometimes leak urine before you get to the toilet.
The charity notes that most men aren't aware that they have prostate cancer until the disease has developed, due to the tumour way in which the tumour grows.
For further information and access to Prostate Cancer UK's risk checker, click here.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Macmillan’s Cancer Support Line on 0808 808 00 00, 8am–8pm seven days a week.
Brenna Cooper