Sir Chris Hoy and his wife have revealed the heart-wrenching moment their children discovered their father’s devastating cancer diagnosis. The six-time Olympic cycling champion received a stage four prostate cancer diagnosis in September 2023, though he kept the news private for a full year before going public.

In a candid and emotional interview, the Olympic legend and his wife, Lady Sarra Hoy, have disclosed their youngsters’ reaction to the crushing revelation. The pair are parents to two children – son Callum David Robert Hoy, born in 2014, and daughter Chloe Rose Carol, born in 2017. When the youngsters discovered their father’s cancer diagnosis, they posed some deeply moving questions.

Sir Chris’ wife, who received an MS diagnosis simultaneously, revealed to BBC Sport that her children wondered if the diagnosis “was because I was naughty?”.

The couple’s two kids also enquired whether their dad “was going to die” and if they might “catch it.”

She explained: “They were scared, they had heard about cancer. I wanted to make cancer and chemotherapy part of our lives.”

Sarra added that she recognised that her husband’s chemotherapy would finish around the time their tree would be flowering.

The family proceeded to paint an enormous tree without leaves or blooms, adding pink blossoms daily as Sir Chris underwent his treatment.

Visibly emotional, she continued: “Everyday the kids would get up and stick a bit of blossom on the tree.” The concept behind the project was that the family were “helping daddy regrow.”

Chris disclosed that “by the end of the chemo, it was into springtime and this cherry tree was growing.”

The Olympic hero saw the cherry blossom as profoundly “symbolic” of rebirth and renewal. Sarra clarified she was “doing it for Chris as much as for the children.”

In a touching interview, she expressed her wish for her husband to see how the “trees are stripped bare, stripped down to nothing, but that they regrow.”

Chris revealed that each morning, he would “come down for breakfast and the tree would look a bit bushier.”

He joked that it represented the “inverse of me where I was getting more and more unwell with it, but that actually seeing that I was getting through this.”

The sports legend described the cherry blossom initiative as “doing something positive” for him.

Since his diagnosis, Hoy has emerged as a prominent advocate for raising awareness and recently raised over £3million for his “Tour de 4” charity bike ride, which is slated to return in 2026.