Placeholder: Sir Chris Hoy

[Gavster]

Sad news about Chris Hoy. I’ve always been in awe of sprinters and Hoy was an absolute beast, I still go back and watch some of his old sprints. You could always see his strength of mind by the way he’d beat people, on top of being physically dominant.

Cyclist Sir Chris Hoy announces his cancer is terminal https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj4dr9xdxgro

[V8Granite]

We were watching the sprinting yesterday morning when he was commentating, with how he looked I just assumed that he had beaten it and all was well with the world.

Cancer is a cunt.

Dave!

[ZedLeg]

Terribly sad news.

A good kick in the arse for us middle aged men who avoid the doctor too tbh.

[Ascender]

Very sad news and like @V8Granite says, I'd wrongly assumed he was recovering after seeing him on a few things. His wife was also diagnosed with MS @ at around the same time and they have young kids too, just tragic.

[GG.]

Yes, really shocking to hear that. Clearly Prostate check ups after age 50 should really be brought forward to 45 or testing to discover whether you have gene mutations that put you at higher risk.

[Mito Man]

Sad news, and I was not aware you could get prostate cancer at that age.

[JonMad]

Damn, Sir Chris

Reminded me I get to get that checkup.

[mik]

I declare this news to be massively shit.

Much respect to him for approaching pragmatically and just getting on with it; but it must be a massive strain on him and his family.

[duncs500]

It's just fucking tragic, and it seems to me (whilst anecdotal on my part, I understand from others backed by research) that it's happening increasingly frequently in younger and younger people. It's a bit frustrating to me that it's not getting more airtime generally and attention at government level.

I can't imagine how the family is coping with it, especially with his wife's diagnosis as well.

The best thing I can think to say about it is at least he's not going to be sitting there thinking "I wish I'd achieved more with my time on earth".

[mik]

I can't imagine how the family is coping with it, especially with his wife's diagnosis as well.

I wasn't aware of her near-simultaneous MS diagnosis too. Jeez.

[IanF]

Very sad, but I don’t understand the timings; 2 to 4 years but still terminal? What is the benefit of being checked if they can’t remedy the situation even (I assume) that early on?

[V8Granite]

By the time it was found it had already spread to many other parts of his body sadly.

Dave!

[GG.]

Very sad, but I don’t understand the timings; 2 to 4 years but still terminal? What is the benefit of being checked if they can’t remedy the situation even (I assume) that early on?

From what I've read its actually very slowly progressing in many cases and a significant number of men die "with it" and not "of it" as if its discovered when you're 75 and barely progressing you may take the decision not to have an invasive procedure. Its a bit like some forms of skin cancer (BCCs not Melanoma).

Like breast cancer, however, it seems there are different types and Hoy had a heriditary disposition with family history - clearly his has occured earlier than typical and is more aggressive/has metastisised quickly.

In reality there should be absolutely no reason for ending up as he has - men with family history of cancer such as that should be checked regularly and early. Its a bit akin to knowing you grandmother and mother died of breast cancer in their 50s and 60s but not getting checked from the age of 40.

Problem is, "our NHS" is not even remotely on top of this and will actually discourage testing because of capacity constraints so the solution is take ownership and pay for it privately if you think you're at risk.

ETA: There is also a correlation between regular high duration cycling and prostate cancer given the stress it places on the gland so his risk would have been elevated further. Scary though when you think of many other activities many of us do that scientifically we know place us at higher risk...

[Swervin_Mervin]

Very sad, but I don’t understand the timings; 2 to 4 years but still terminal? What is the benefit of being checked if they can’t remedy the situation even (I assume) that early on?

He went to the docs about a shoulder pain. It was found that he'd had primary cancer in the prostate and that it had spread to his bones by the time of the shoulder pain. So it was already too late for him by then.

However I understand he's now on meds to slow the progress of the cancer. So he'll get longer with his young kids at least.

[Gavster]