CHRIS Hoy says there needs to be more conversations about health between men as he is on track to inspire up to 500,000 people to check for prostate cancer after announcing he is terminally ill from the disease.
Prostate Cancer UK say the impact of his announcement in October has seen almost 300,000 men make a check online and more than three-quarters of them had one or more of the three main risk factors of disease, including family history.
A tumour was found in Hoy’s shoulder and a second scan found primary cancer in his prostate, which has metastasised to his bones.
He had first made public in February that he was undergoing treatment, including chemotherapy.
Hoy, 48, whose father and grandfather were both diagnosed with the illness, told BBC Breakfast: “I think you were very aware of your physical fitness.
“You were very aware of your performance on the bike and the data behind that and how you felt in terms of recovery from training sessions or races but actually it wasn’t something we talked about.
“Not because there was a stigma attached to it necessarily but just because it probably wasn’t on our radar.
“When you are young, fit and healthy you assume you are immune to any of that. You think that is for further down the line. When you are 50, that is when you starting thinking about prostate cancer and checking.
During his career on the track Hoy won six Olympic gold medals, 11 World Championships and 34 World Cup titles before he retired from competitive racing in 2013.
His wife Sarra has also been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and the couple have two young children.
He said it was not an easy decision to talk about this diagnosis in public, telling the programme: “We thought long and hard about it, particularly with young kids, but it felt the right thing to do and it felt like we could make a difference.
“When you have a terrible diagnosis whether it is yourself, or a family member or a close friend, you are driven to do something.
“I think that is why you see people in their hundreds of thousands doing charity bike rides, the London Marathon, doing something, because you don’t want to sit on your backside and sit and think `I can’t do anything here or to wait for the inevitable to happen’.
“Instead you think, let’s try to make a difference – let’s try to make a change.
Prostate Cancer UK hope more men may come forward and check their risk as Hoy is an ambassador for the charity’s The Bigger 180 campaign at the Paddy Power PDC World Darts Championship which starts on Sunday.
Laura Kerby, Prostate Cancer UK chief executive, told BBC Breakfast: “Since Sir Chris has come out with his story, we have seen a significant impact. We have seen almost 300,000 men come through our online checker on the Prostate Cancer UK website.
“Importantly, because I think this is what resonates with Sir Chris’s story, is that we have seen 40,000 men with family history – because it is about making men aware that yes there is a risk of prostate cancer but actually family history is a higher risk – and the fact we have had so many men coming forward in that area – I think is a fact that really resonates.
“Chris is going to be the ambassador of the Paddy Power The Bigger 180 (campaign at the) World Darts championships which is going to try to get to another 180,000 men and raise money for the transform clinical trial.
“The reason that is important, you [Hoy] will almost have half a million men at that stage that you have encouraged to come forward to take the risk checker and, as a result of that, that will have saved hundreds and thousands of lives.”
The trial aims to find the best way to diagnose the disease early and pave the way for a national screening programme that could save thousands of lives, the charity says.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer without a screening programme and “we need a national screening programme”, Kerby added.
