Sir Chris Hoy says ‘selfless’ wife, Sarra, kept MS diagnosis a secret during his cancer treatment
Sir Chris Hoy has said his “selfless” wife, Sarra, kept her multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis a secret as they dealt with his prostate cancer treatment.
Sir Chris, 48, one of Britain’s most successful Olympians, revealed last weekend that his prostate cancer, which he disclosed in February, is now stage 4, and he has “two to four years” to live.
In an extract from his memoir, All That Matters: My Toughest Race Yet, published in The Sunday Times, the track cyclist said his “selfless” wife, Sarra, had shown him unwavering support while facing “this absolute crisis in the midst of my own”.
Hoy celebrates winning the men’s track cycling keirin race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Pic: Reuters
Sarra went for a routine MRI scan a week after his cancer diagnosis after suffering a tingling sensation in her face and tongue.
Sir Chris said she joked it was “a chance for her to have a lie down for an hour” and “as close to a spa day as she’d get”.
She continued to support me “wholly and completely” after the scan and he thought no more of it, as her symptoms disappeared.
But he revealed his wife, who was “always so strong”, was “struggling to get the words out” when she broke the news of her diagnosis to him in December.
With “tear-filled eyes”, she asked him if he remembered the scan and said “‘they think it might be multiple sclerosis'”.
The six-time Olympic gold medallist “immediately broke down”, he said, “distraught both by the news and the fact she’d received it without me there”.
Chris Hoy and Sarra in 2021. Pic: Reuters
She had known for more than a month, he writes in the memoir, saying: “It was so hard to try to compute that she had absorbed the awfulness of this diagnosis alone, without sharing it with me, in order to protect me.
“My mind was spinning, trying to understand what had been happening to her, all while she had been accompanying me to every one of my own hospital appointments.”
MS is a chronic condition that affects the brain and spinal cord and cannot be cured, but medicines and other treatments can help alleviate symptoms that include extreme tiredness, vision problems and difficulty with walking or balance.
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Hoy speaks after revealing cancer diagnosis
Sir Chris wrote: “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing; Sarra, so fit and well, able and healthy, was facing this absolute crisis in the midst of my own.
Later that month, Sarra was told her condition was “very active and aggressive”, meaning she needed treatment “very quickly”.
He couldn’t understand how she “was able to take this news with such fortitude”.
Sir Chris describes his wife as “the centre of my life”, and writes that he knew within minutes of meeting her in 2006 that “she was everything I was looking for”.
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The couple were married four years later and have two children, seven-year-old Chloe and Callum, 10.
He said in his book: “Sarra has amazed me with all that she has faced. She has supported me and encourages me every step of the way, but rarely speaks about her own symptoms.”
On Thursday, Sarra posted on social media saying she was “completely overwhelmed” by the “kind, thoughtful and helpful messages” following her husband’s announcement and called him a “real-life superhero”.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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