Sir Chris Hoy and his wife, Lady Sarra Hoy, have spoken movingly about the moment they told their young children that their father had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, revealing the heartbreaking questions the news provoked and the simple family ritual that helped them cope.
The six-time Olympic cycling champion, now 49, was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in September 2023, a reality he chose to make public a year later.
In a candid interview, Hoy and his wife described how the diagnosis rippled through their home, particularly for their two children, Callum, born in 2014, and Chloe, born in 2017.
Speaking to the BBC, Lady Sarra said the children’s first reaction was fear and confusion.
“They were scared, they had heard about cancer,” she explained, before revealing the questions that followed almost immediately.
“Questions come very quickly, will he die? Will I catch it? Did I cause it? Is it because I was naughty.”
One moment, in particular, stayed with her. The children asked: “Was it because I was naughty?”
Sir Chris Hoy and Lady Sarra Hoy have been married since 2010 | GETTYFor Sarra, it underlined the need to address the illness openly, rather than allowing imagination and guilt to fill the gaps.
“I wanted to make cancer and chemotherapy part of our lives,” she said, describing the decision to explain the situation in terms the children could understand.
The challenge facing the family was compounded by Sarra’s own diagnosis.
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Sir Chris Hoy and Lady Sarra Hoy have previously said they're 'refusing to be victims' as they battle cancer and MS respectively
| GETTYJust weeks before Hoy was told he may have as little as four years to live, she learned that she has multiple sclerosis, a degenerative and incurable condition that can affect the brain and spinal cord, impairing vision, coordination and movement.
Hoy has previously explained that on difficult days his wife can struggle with everyday tasks, including fitting a key into a door.
Against that backdrop, the couple devised a visual way to explain chemotherapy and recovery to their children, centred on a cherry blossom tree in their garden.
Sarra realised that her husband’s course of treatment would end around the time the tree would naturally come into bloom.
Together, the family painted a large image of a bare tree, stripped of leaves and flowers, and placed it inside the house.
Each day during Hoy’s chemotherapy, the children added small pieces of pink blossom to the branches.
Sir Chris Hoy won six gold medals for Team GB during his Olympics career
| PA“Every day the kids would get up and stick a bit of blossom on the tree,” Sarra said, her voice breaking as she recalled the routine.
The idea, she explained, was that the family were “helping daddy regrow”.
Hoy said the symbolism became more powerful as treatment progressed.
“By the end of the chemo it was into spring time and this cherry tree was growing,” he said, describing the parallel between the artwork and the real tree outside.
Cherry blossom, he added, felt particularly apt, representing renewal and resilience after hardship.
For Sarra, the project was as much about supporting her husband as reassuring their children. She wanted him to see that “trees are stripped bare, stripped down to nothing, but that they regrow,” a reminder that devastation does not preclude recovery or hope.