The highly anticipated Sports Personality of the Year awards returned to to celebrate some of this year’s best athletes across sports, however many viewers were left feeling emotional.
This came after 11-time world champion and six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy made a moving appearance on the stage to praise the efforts of Team GB’s stars who competed at the Paris Games during the summer.
In February, the Olympic icon revealed he is battling prostate cancer with on .
As the 48-year-old took to the stage, hundreds were moved to tears, including a viewer who penned: “Sir Chris Hoy on #SPOTY. I’m not crying, you’re crying.”
As another remarked: “Well that was an emotional speech from Sir Chris Hoy #SPOTY.”
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Chris Hoy made a moving appearance on BBC’s SPOTY (Image: BBC )
An emotional viewer added: “Sir Chris Hoy only has to come onto the stage and I’m in tears #SPOTY.”
A fourth fan echoed: “SIR CHRIS HOY!!! I’m literally in floods of tears!! #SPOTY.”
As another praised the icon and penned: “Sir Chris Hoy. A superb athlete. I wish him the very best, and all the quality time his illness will allow.”
Sir Chris revealed that he kept the diagnosis private for over a year but has since tragically disclosed that the cancer is now terminal.
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Chris Hoy is a six-time Olympic champion (Image: Getty)
Despite his gruelling battle with cancer, Sir Chris has not shied away from making public appearances and opened up about his plans to outlive the terminal diagnosis.
The athlete shared that he’d been given between two and four years left to live to “crack on for many years’ yet.”
During an appearance on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, he stated: “Well the plan is, right now, keep doing what I’m doing in terms of treatment because it’s working.
“Touch wood – the diagnosis was two to four years, but actually if you look beyond that it can be many years.
“There’s people out there that are still around who’ve been in the similar situation for 20 years. So you know there’s hope. There is hope and I’m very lucky that there is treatment for me.”