1 week Ago By Ian Swanson
And he said his wife Sarra had been diagnosed with a "very active and aggressive" type of multiple sclerosis. Advertisement Advertisement Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. But in an interview with the Sunday Times, Sir Chris said the couple, - who have two children: Callum, 10, and Chloe, 7 - feel lucky because, although their illnesses are incurable, they can still be treated.
Sir Chris - a six-time Olympic gold medallist - found out he had cancer in September 2023 and began treatment, including chemotherapy, but only made it public in February when he learned the news was about to leak. Now the 48-year-old has written a memoir about the past year, which he hopes will help change people's perceptions of advanced cancer. Advertisement Advertisement In his interview, he said: "As unnatural as it feels, this is nature.
You know, we were all born and we all die, and this is just part of the process." He said many deaths were sudden, leaving "no chance to say goodbyes or make peace with everything. But I've been given enough time.
I've learnt to live in the moment, and I have days of genuine joy and happiness." Sir Chris’s cancer diagnosis last year came after he thought he had strained his shoulder and was referred to hospital for a scan. The doctor told him he had a tumour in his shoulder and two days later a second scan found primary cancer in his prostate, which had metastasised to his bones.
The cancer was stage 4 and had also spread to his pelvis, hip, spine and rib. Advertisement Advertisement He recalled telling the children during dinner one night that he had cancer in his shoulder and Callum asking him: "Are you going to die?" Sir Chris told him that no one lived for ever, but he hoped, thanks to the medicine, "to be here for many, many years". Just weeks earlier, Sarra had also been sent for a scan after complaining of tingling sensation in her face and tongue.
Just before Christmas they were told she had "very active and aggressive" MS and needed urgent treatment. Sir Chris said: "It didn't seem real. It was such a huge blow, when you're already reeling.
You think nothing could possibly get worse. You literally feel like you're at rock bottom, and you find out, oh no, you've got further to fall. It was brutal.
" Advertisement Advertisement But with time, he has come to view the situation more positively. "The fear and anxiety, it all comes from trying to predict the future. But the future is this abstract concept in our minds.
None of us know what's going to happen. The one thing we know is we've got a finite time on the planet." He said all that had changed was that he had "more information" about his future than most people.
Advertisement Advertisement "So what I've come round to thinking is, why spoil that time? Crack on and enjoy and be grateful for what you do have. I'm not saying that I'm a Zen master and I've controlled my thoughts and my emotions in every situation. I'm not trying to pretend that every day is amazing.
But I have genuine moments of joy. I have laughter. I'm not thinking about it all the time.
I'm back to my old self." He said his medication made him tired and weak. “But you remind yourself, aren't I lucky that there is medicine I can take that will fend this off for as long as possible.
Sarra says all the time, 'How lucky are we? We both have incurable illnesses for which there is treatment. Not every disease has that. It could be a lot worse'" Edinburgh -born Sir Chris took up cycling at the age of 14 and won his first Olympic medal at Sydney in 2000.
He went in to win a total of six Olympic gold medals, 11 world championships and 34 World Cup titles by the time he retired from competitive racing in 2013. He was knighted in 2008. Advertisement Advertisement He met Sarra, a lawyer, also from Edinburgh, on a night out shortly before the 2006 Commonwealth Games, and they got married two years later.
His book, All That Matters: My Toughest Race Yet (Hodder & Stoughton £22) is published on November 7. And he is trying to change the way advanced cancer is viewed by launching an annual "Tour de 4" charity fundraising bike ride. It would see "as many people as possible who have been affected by cancer" pedalling from Glasgow to Edinburgh every summer.
Sir Chris said: "Changing the perception of stage 4 - that could be a really powerful thing. Stage 4's not just, right, this is the end of your life. There's more to be lived.
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