Sir Chris Hoy’s wife has spoken movingly about both her Olympian husband and her own health battles in her first solo TV interview. Last year, Sir Chris Hoy, a 48-year-old six-time Olympic gold medalist, revealed he had terminal prostate cancer, and shortly after, his wife Lady Sarra was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Now Lady Sarra Hoy has opened up to ITV’s Lorraine about the dark times following the immediate aftermath of their respective diagnoses and how they have both remained strong for the sake of their children Chloe, seven, and Callum, 10.
“You just don’t sleep, everything is awful,” Lady Sarra said of learning the news. “It was about trying to control what I could, and I just thought, I can’t do anything about cancer, I can’t do anything about MS [Multiple Sclerosis], I can’t control any of that. What can I do? What can I help? What can I change?”
She told how they both had to dig deep amid the mental anguish as they both refused to be bowed by their predicament. Lady Sarra added: “When everything is spiralling just to stop and say, ‘right now, we’re safe, the children are safe, this can’t define us. We will not become the victims of this.’”
Reflecting on raising her children amid her and her husband’s health battle, Lady Sarra said: “With kids you don’t get a chance, there’s no time to stop and have a day in bed, you just don’t get that opportunity. So yes, the children are everything for us and our family that surrounds us are everything.” Opening up about how she is coping and how she is trying to control what she can, Sarra said: “It’s been okay and I think people are really surprised to know that you can sort of be okay, and I think that’s definitely what’s helped us get through.”
Lady Sarra was opening up to Lorraine Kelly as part of the ITV show’s March4March campaign.
Its aim is to support the one in four Brits who suffer with low mood as research reveals how exercise and movement is beneficial in aiding better mental health. Lorraine will ask its viewers and celebrity supporters to pledge a number of steps across the month of March to try and hit 3million steps, which would be the entire length of the UK.
Lorraine Kelly talks to Sarra Hoy as part of the ITV’s show new campaign
Sarra on Lorraine
He said that there had been “no symptoms, no warnings, nothing,” adding: “All I had was a pain in my shoulder and a little bit of pain in my ribs.” A scan revealed a tumour, while a second scan two days later found the main cancer to be in his prostate which has since metastasised to his shoulder, pelvis, hip, ribs and spine and was stage 4. He has two to four years left, he said.
“It was the biggest shock of my life. I remember the feeling of just absolute horror and shock,” he revealed last year. “I just basically walked back in a daze. I couldn’t believe the news and I was just trying to process it, I don’t remember walking. I just remember sort of halfway home thinking ‘where am I?’ And then I was thinking ‘how am I going to tell Sarra? What am I going to say?’.”
But things got worse, as wife Sarra learned three months later she had multiple sclerosis, only sharing the news with her sister. “The strength of Sarra is unbelievable, she kept it to herself,” Sir Chris explained at the time.
“Throughout all of that she was there for me but didn’t at any point crack. And it was really only in December that she said ‘this is the news I’ve had’.
“That was the lowest point I think. That was the point where I suddenly thought ‘what is going on?’ I almost felt like saying OK stop, this is a dream, wake me up, this isn’t real, this is a nightmare. You were already on the canvas and I just felt this, another punch when you’re already down – it was like getting that kick on the floor.”
Sir Chris married lawyer Sarra in 2010. He was knighted in the 2009 New Year Honours list for his services to sport, after winning three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He has won six Olympic golds and one silver overall – the second highest tally by a British Olympian behind Sir Jason Kenny’s seven Olympic titles. He retired in 2013 and is now a BBC commentator.
Earlier this year it was revealed that Sir Chris is organising a charity cycle ride to show people with Stage 4 cancer can still live life to the full. His Tour de 4 bike ride will start and end at the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome in Glasgow on September 7. He said: “It’s important to demonstrate it is possible to live well and lead a happy life alongside this devastating diagnosis.” More than 300,000 men in Britain have had checks for prostate cancer since Sir Chris announced last year he was terminally ill with the disease.
