Sir Chris Hoy's fury as 10,000 men a year diagnosed with cancer 'too late'

Published: 20:09, 12 July 2026 | Updated: 20:09, 12 July 2026 A furious Sir Chris Hoy has said there was never any interest in rolling out routine prostate cancer screening. The Olympic cycling legend, who was diagnosed with the disease nearly three years ago, hit out at the lack of potentially life- saving mass testing for men over 50. Six-time gold medallist Sir Chris, who was told he had just years left to live after the cancer spread to his bones, said he could not believe the best way forward was to continue telling thousands of men their condition was incurable because it was diagnosed too late. It comes as he paid tribute to ‘kind and gracious’ broadcaster Dermot Murnaghan, who died from the disease at the weekend. Sir Chris’s shock diagnosis in 2023 had a huge impact on the public awareness of prostate cancer, and within months, hundreds of thousands of men sought prostate-specific antigen tests. He has led a high-profile campaign for universal NHS screening of men over 50. But a consultation, announced in May, recommended only men with a certain gene and a family history of relevant cancers should be screened. Universal screening is seen as subjecting men at no risk of dying from prostate cancer to unnecessary treatment that could cause incontinence and erectile dysfunction. The 50-year-old told The Sunday Times Magazine: ‘The powers that be would rather tell those 10,000 men a year in the UK who were diagnosed too late: “We could have screened you but actually there was a risk you wouldn’t have needed to know, so we didn’t want you to know about it. Sorry, you 10,000 who are incurable, but we stopped all these other men from getting nasty surgery”. Sir Chris has hit out at the lack of provision for universal prostate screening TV journalist Dermot Murnaghan fell victim to the disease aged 68 ‘Surely we’re better off having information, being educated about what that means and then either having treatment or not. 'That’s your own decision, and your information, to deal with. I just find it infuriating.’  But he added: ‘The whole way through, I just got the vibe that there was never going to be any change. ‘There was an initial period where there seemed to be momentum... but then there was nobody really pushing it. Nobody wanted it. ‘I just can’t believe the best way forward is to sit on our hands and do nothing and let 10,000 men get the same news I was told.’ Across the UK some 64,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. Scotland makes up more than 5,000 of those cases. Mr Murnaghan, the former BBC, ITV, and Sky journalist, died at the weekend at the age of 68. He had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer a year ago. Sir Chris said: ‘He was a kind and gracious man and someone who has been a big part of this current chapter of my life. ‘I can’t quite believe he’s gone, just like that. This is a cruel disease and one that Dermot campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness and funds for.’ A Scottish Government spokesman said: 'We are grateful to Sir Chris and all campaigners for their continued advocacy on prostate cancer, and welcome efforts being made to raise awareness. We share the desire to improve detection of a disease which devastates so many lives. “The Scottish Government takes advice from the UK National Screening Committee, an independent expert advisory group that informs screening policy across the UK. 'While there is not yet a suitably accurate test and single treatment for patients with early-stage prostate cancer that could be safely used within a national screening programme, we look forward to the results of the UK Transform trial, which will be applicable in Scotland.'