There is no doubt Chris Hoy has saved lives and deserves Scotland's Champion trophy
Sir Chris Hoy is a national hero. Not only is he a six-time Olympic gold medallist, his courage to speak out about his illness has inspired the country.
We all cheered him on as he won race after race across the world and represented Scotland with pride.
He was our greatest ever Olympian when he retired but it has been his strength in the face of greater challenges that have made such a huge difference.
Since being diagnosed with prostate cancer, he has helped raise awareness of the illness by speaking out.
Charities have reported a surge of inquiries for tests since.
Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.
You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.
All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in!
If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like.
To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
There is no doubt Chris has saved lives, despite the difficult situation he finds himself in.
And he will do it again in September with his mass participation cycle ride starting and finishing in Glasgow.
The Tour de 4 aims to raise £1million for cancer charities across the country and change perceptions of what a cancer diagnosis looks like.
Chris is absolutely deserving to be given the first ever Scotland's Champion trophy at the Daily Record Pride of Scotland awards tonight.
And he continues to inspire us by dedicating his award to those who are going through similar struggles.
Our awards ceremony tonight will be honouring Scotland's unsung heroes, who have all made huge differences to others or in their communities.
It will be an inspirational night and you can read all about the winners in the Daily Record this week.
Prime example
Many people will never forgive Tony Blair for his disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The war made the Middle East even more chaotic than it was before.
And the consequences of the Iraq War are still being felt today as the region continues to be a threat to world peace.
For many, Blair's legacy was tarnished by his willingness to back the US in the invasion.
But that should not blind us to his achievements as a Labour prime minister.
He made Labour a party of power, despite it having never served two full terms in a row before.
Blair is still the most electorally successful Labour leader of all time, with three election wins.
For that reason, Scottish Labour and Anas Sarwar are right to take advice from his institute.
If they want to win next year's Holyrood election and beat the SNP, who better to help than the man who saved Labour from 18 long years in the political desert?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Kevin Durant traded to Rockets in blockbuster deal: See trade details
The person spoke under the condition of anonymity on Sunday, June 22, because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the trade until it becomes official. Durant is set to enter the final season of his contract. The trade cannot be formalized until July 1, the start of the new league year. ESPN was first to report the news of the trade. Since he won a pair of consecutive NBA championships with the Warriors in 2017 and 2018, Durant has sought another title. His stints with the Brooklyn Nets and Suns didn't elevate either team to serious contention, though his statistical production has remained constant. And, with Durant set to enter the 2025-26 season as a 37-year-old, this may present his last chance to contend for another NBA Finals. This past season, Phoenix missed the play-in window and finished 11th in the Western Conference with a 36-46 record. The Suns dealt with several injuries throughout the season, including an ankle issue Durant sustained toward the end of the regular season that forced him to miss Phoenix's final seven games, six of which were losses. The Suns, who had the highest payroll in the NBA with Devin Booker and Bradley Beal also commanding large salaries, struggled to gel and lacked depth. In an attempt to work through those issues, players often had to change their roles and responsibilities, ultimately costing former coach Mike Budenholzer his job. Despite that, Durant averaged 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in 62 appearances. In Durant, the Rockets are acquiring a proven commodity and an elite, three-level scorer who can knock down shots with ease, particularly late in games. This is something that should instantly help Houston, whose offense at times stagnated with no obvious top scoring threat. The No. 2 seed in the Western Conference that was bounced out of the first round of the playoffs, this move should boost Houston's chance to make a deep run in the postseason. With 30,571 career points, Durant ranks eighth on the all-time scoring list and is in real position to climb further; Durant, who scored 1,647 points this season with the Suns, needs just 1,722 points to surpass Michael Jordan (32,292), who is fifth on the list. A four-time scoring champion, two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, 11-time All-NBA selection and the 2013-14 NBA Most Valuable Player, Durant was selected second overall in the 2007 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics (who later became the Oklahoma City Thunder). Durant, a fixture on Team USA, is also a four-time Olympic gold medalist.
The Herald Scotland
2 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Living the dream as hopefuls tee-up at Open qualifying
In fact, some of the more technologically challenged entrants would probably view a successful navigation of The Open Qualifying Player Portal online log-in process as something of a rousing triumph. At the likes of Barassie and Craigielaw up here to Ferndown and Gog Magog down south, The Open dream will be alive and kicking. Well, until a nervy triple-bogey on the first. For £150, though, it's all worth it to be, even at this early and remote stage, part of the game's most treasured major championship. From amateurs and up-and-coming stars to club pros, veteran campaigners and a couple of golf fanatics who made a name for themselves in different ball games, the 18-hole regional qualifying shoot-out features a giddy old mix of combatants. Jimmy Bullard and Peter Odimwingie, both former Premier League footballers in their day, are giving it a whack and a thwack at Rochester & Cobham Park and Enville respectively. After retiring from the roon ba' game, the dimpled one became Odimwingie's passion and he embarked on the three-year PGA degree course. The former Stoke City, Cardiff City and West Bromwich Albion player graduated as a qualified professional last May. 'The course takes some effort to accomplish,' said the 43-year-old who earned over 60 international caps for Nigeria. 'I hear that people do quit halfway through because of the volume of it and the pressure that comes with it. It wasn't easy, but I think the character I developed from football helped. 'I've had those times when I had a goal drought and didn't score for five or six months, but you have to keep going. Sometimes you just have to endure.' It sounds like the qualities you need to get through qualifying for The Open. Or just through a round of bloomin' golf in general. If you happen to be interested in ice hockey, then you may have heard of Mario Lemieux, an Olympic gold medal winner and one of the sport's greatest players. And if you're not interested in it, then we may as well be writing about Mario Lanza. Anyway, Lemieux's son, Austin, was set to be teeing-off at Craigielaw as the he joined the scramble for a place in next week's 36-hole final qualifiers. Whenever Open qualifying crops up, of course, it's almost impossible not to think about the intrepid, eccentric and well-documented escapades of Maurice Flitcroft. It's almost 50 years now since the Barrow crane operator bluffed his way into final qualifying at Formby for the 1976 Open at Royal Birkdale, posted a bewildering 121 and sparked so much headshaking, harrumphing and handwringing among officialdom, the turbulence of said agitation just about buckled the handle of the Claret Jug. It was hardly surprising. In those days, golf's high heids yins were described as being, '10 per cent flesh, 10 per cent blood and 80 per cent rule book.' Flitcroft's acts of cunning, determined and ultimately futile subterfuge would go down in golfing history. And whenever some hapless hopeful at Open qualifying endures a chaotic day, Flitcroft's name often crops up. Back in 2008, for instance, an entrant by the name of John Spreadborough got the tongues wagging during the regional stage at Musselburgh with a lively 99. 'Maurice Flitcroft revisted?,' suggested one of the referees at the time after a round which included a 13 at the par-5 seventh and an 11 at the par-five 11th. A defiant flurry of three straight pars to finish was the kind of roof-raising finale you'd get with a rendition of Nessun dorma. A very brief post-round chinwag with Spreadborough, however, heightened the suspicions that we may have had another Flitcroft in our midst. 'I put the Brucefields golf facility down as an attachment as I don't have a handicap,' he said after revealing that he had, like Flitcroft before him, entered as a professional and had sneaked under the radar. 'Everybody dreams of playing in The Open and I thought it would be good to be involved,' he added before beating a hasty retreat. There will be plenty of dreamers giving it a go today. And sometimes, those Open dreams can come true.
Rhyl Journal
2 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
Ministers urged to provide more graduate training slots for UK medical students
Dr Peter Prinsley, a retired ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist who was elected for Labour last year, said thousands of British medicine graduates were missing out on doing further training every year because of a lack of places combined with the pressures from international medical graduates in the NHS. The British Medical Association has said about 20,000 applicants will miss out this year, if the number of available posts are the same. It added that according to the latest figures, there were 4.7 applications per post. The MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket said it had led to graduates moving abroad to do further study who sometimes do not return. He added there should be reserved spaces for UK graduates to be able to specialise and do further study. Dr Prinsley told the PA news agency: 'The problem is that we've got a distorted competition ratio for the professional training slots. 'It should be a reasonable expectation that if you graduate from the UK medical school, you should have a reasonable chance of getting into higher professional training. 'There should be some competition. It shouldn't just be that you automatically progress with no effort, there should be a bit of competition, but the competition ratios have been hugely distorted by the requirement of the hospitals to provide junior doctors to staff their rotas.' It comes as Wes Streeting said UK medical graduates will be given priority for NHS jobs under the upcoming 10-year health plan. The Health Secretary told medical website on Thursday: 'I want to make sure that if you go through your medical training here in the UK, that you're able to work in the UK.' Mr Streeting added it was 'completely bonkers' to invest in training doctors but not ensure they can stay in the UK to work. The latest figures from the BMA showed there were 33,108 medical graduates applying for around 13,000 posts. This includes 12,305 UK graduates and 20,803 from overseas. The number of international medical graduates has doubled in two years, the figures show, while the UK ones have only risen by a third. The sharp rise in the number of international medical graduates has been down to the increased demand for doctors in the NHS to fill hospital vacancies. In 2023 more than two-thirds of new doctors (68%) joining the NHS were non-UK graduates, up from 47% in 2017. In a statement, the Department for Health and Social Care said the Government should not be 'over-reliant' on overseas recruitment. Doctors can go on to do further training after two foundation years in the NHS. If they apply and miss out on further study, they then move on to so-called foundation three status, where they can work as locums and apply for jobs within individual trusts. Some, however, opt to move abroad to work or study. The number doing another foundation year has risen in recent years. In its latest workforce report, the General Medical Council said the number of doctors not going into speciality training had grown and was a 'sizeable' part of the workforce. Dr Prinsley said he believes priority should be given to UK graduates and physician associates – who have less training – could be used to fill some of the roles taken up by overseas recruits. He said: 'The change that we need is not very difficult. We just need to make a situation in which we prioritise the UK training slots for the UK medical graduates. If we've got any slots we can't recruit to, then, of course, we extend it.' He added: 'The problem has two solutions. We need less international medical graduates being recruited by the hospitals. We need to find an alternative way of staffing the rotas to run the hospitals. 'There's a sort of golden mean, which would allow us to sort out the ratios of international medical graduates to British graduates, and also provide a meaningful role for these graduates as physician associates.' The British Medical Association will discuss the issue at its annual conference in Liverpool on Monday. In a motion put forward by members in the East Midlands, it asks the Government to 'significantly increase the number of training posts available for resident doctors'. It echoes a similar call by the Royal College of Physicians, who wrote in February 'UK graduates must be supported and enabled to enter postgraduate training schemes to continue their training in the NHS'. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: 'We are committed to building home-grown talent and ensuring UK medical graduates can find work in Britain – our 10 year health plan will tackle bottlenecks in the system. 'Internationally-trained staff remain an important part of the workforce but we should not be over reliant on overseas recruitment.'
