Scotsman leader: Hoy’s greatest triumph is yet to come

Already an 11-time world champion and a six-time Olympic champion, Sir Chris Hoy may be about to seal his greatest achievement.

Sir Chris yesterday launched the Scottish Prostate Cancer Initiative, a project to screen 25,000 Scottish men in a bid to improve early detection and diagnosis while saving lives. It is a cause The Scotsman fully supports.

The Olympian announced his own devastating terminal diagnosis in October 2024 and said he had found a “new purpose” since.

“I think the most important thing is to explain that it’s just a simple blood test,” he said.

“With a PSA [prostate specific antigen] test you’re in and out of the doctor’s in five minutes.

“It’s easy, it’s simple, it’s painless – and it could save your life.”

It really can. Figures showed 35 per cent of men in Scotland with prostate cancer were diagnosed when it was too late to be cured, compared to just 12.5 per cent in London.

Early diagnosis saves lives – and also public cash.

A stage one diagnosis, which is curable, could cost thousands of pounds to treat while stage four, which is terminal, costs hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Each man who participates in the initiative will be asked to give a simple blood sample to measure PSA levels with the results within days.

That lives are currently lost through unnecessary embarrassment is devastating, when the solution is so simple.

Sir Chris said: “I always assumed there would be some kind of symptoms or early-warning signs. My grandpa had prostate cancer, my dad had it, so I was aware of it.

“But even then, we’re always told it’s 50 years and above, that it’s an older man’s disease, and it’s slow-moving, and you’ll get warning signs. That’s not always the case.”

Sir Chris, in the way he has spoken openly about his own condition, and in his dedication to ensure it saves the lives of others is an inspiration.

Winning six Olympic gold medals is not easy. Going for a simple blood test most certainly is.

Bob’s Repair Shop ban just isn’t funny

There’s a joke in here somewhere. BBC show The Repair Shop apparently scrapped plans to fix a joke book belonging to Bob Monkhouse after the contents were deemed “not appropriate”.

Production staff are said to have decided not to repair the late comedian’s book or feature it on the show after they read the jokes inside. The mind boggles.

We don’t doubt that some Seventies jokes may seem a little distasteful today, but surely they could have declined to show the offending gags on screen.

Bob was certainly not a tame comedian on the circuit, but also, we suspect, in no particular danger of being “cancelled” even by today’s impossible standards.

So, in the light of the latest inexplicable BBC decision we feel it appropriate to reprint this classic one-liner from the comedian who died in 2003.

“People used to laugh at me when I said I wanted to be a comedian. Well they're not laughing now.”