A CHARITY has praised Scottish cycling star Chris Hoy’s courage in going public on his terminal cancer it fights to raise awareness of the illness.

The six-times Olympic gold medalist announced last week that his prostate cancer, a condition that both his father and grandfather suffered from, had left the father-of-two with between two and four years to live.

Prostate Scotland founder Professor Alan McNeill said Hoy’s announcement had “raised the issue up the agenda.”

Paying tribute, Prof McNeill said: “He is to be commended for his courage in sharing this.

“What he has done, I presume he has done specifically to try to help others, so I think he has to be admired and thanked for his courage.

“If Chris Hoy can spare others with a similar family history, then he will have done a great thing, another great thing.”

Urging those with family histories of the illness, which is “curable in the majority of men,” to seek a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, Prof McNeill added: “If their father had prostate cancer aged 60, I will say to the man: ‘Go get your PSA at 50. If your dad was 55, go when you are 45’.”