By Adam Morris
Driving up to the Plough Hotel in Stenhousemuir on a bleak day in November 2024, Gary Ralston thought little of it when he rushed in to use the toilet.
But noting an unusual urgency, his son suggested he may want to consult a doctor about the sudden need to empty his bladder.
Healthy, fit and never requiring medical interventions, the father-of-two was relaxed attending the GP to check things out shortly after.
“Then I got a call at 8.30 the next morning saying the doctor needed to see me immediately,” says Ralston, 55. “I knew something was going on.”
A PSA test – commonly used to detect prostate cancer – came back with worrying readings, and within a couple of months the former sports journalist from Bridge of Allan was under the knife.
“If I had just ignored it, the cancer would probably have spread and then appeared as pain in my hip or shoulder, which I’d then have dismissed as a sports injury,” he says.
“I got to know Chris Hoy when I was out covering the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His messaging around that kind of thing has been uppermost in my thoughts.”
A radical prostatectomy – the effective removal of the prostate – carried out last March stood a fair chance of resolving the matter.
“After three months you get another PSA test and if the surgery has worked it should come back negligible,” Ralston explains.
“Unfortunately mine didn’t, and it gave an indication that there were probably still some flakes of cancer.
“I had more tests, and over a short period my test score was doubling and doubling and doubling again.”
A diagnosis of advanced prostate cancer followed, and now Ralston will embark on intense and lengthy treatment, which stands around a “50 to 60 per cent chance” of eradicating the disease within three years.
“My life had to get a bit smaller, but my friends, my family – it’s been humbling and life-affirming”
Serving Police Scotland officer
Radiotherapy at the Beatson cancer unit in Glasgow, “wonder drugs” and hormones are all in store, but Ralston is looking up rather than down.
Still in good shape and with plenty of energy, later this month he will attempt to complete the Hyrox event in Glasgow, a gruelling race which combines hard running with workout stations.
His fundraising campaign has won widespread celebrity endorsements, and almost £20,000 has been generated for the Eilidh Brown Memorial Fund charity.
His efforts are backed by a former police detective (read more below), while supporters include a raft of names from Scottish football such as Rangers manager Danny Rohl and former Celtic forward Chris Sutton, as Ralston was a renowned football correspondent before moving into professional communications.
“I’ve even managed to unite the Old Firm,” he jokes.
Finance Secretary Shona Robison has also pledged her backing, as has Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay, a former colleague.
“Big Russell, who I know from years back, lives near the Beatson,” Ralston says.
“He said I could use his house or his driveway – I said the last person that used his driveway unannounced ended up getting battered,” he jokes, referencing Findlay’s infamous 2015 encounter with a gangland hood who threw sulphuric acid in his face.
“I never wanted to go down the self-pity route,” he says.
“It’s not a road I want to travel. Keeping myself physically and mentally fit, watching my nutrition, it’s all vital. I really lean into what I can control.
“My life had to get a bit smaller, but my friends, my family – it’s been humbling and life-affirming.”
His two children, Lewis, 25, and 18-year-old Jennifer, have been especially supportive.
They had already endured the experience of their mother Laura coming through bowel cancer prior to his diagnosis.
Scottish Public Pensions Agency
“They’ve seen too much of cancer in their lives, but they’re emotionally intelligent – we tell each other everything,” Ralston says. “The love and support they’ve given to me and their mother is inspirational.”
Despite his sunny disposition, Ralston doesn’t pretend everything is upbeat. “You’ve got to feel your emotions,” he explains. “You will have down days and bad weeks. But that doesn’t mean a bad life.
“I’m a big Bruce Springsteen fan – he has a line ‘There’s things that’ll knock you down you don’t even see coming’. I’ve really taken that to heart.
“I could think ‘why me’? But actually, why not me? What makes me so special that I shouldn’t be touched by the clutches of life’s misfortune?”
And reaffirming his choice of charity for the Hyrox event, he pays tribute to the parents of Eilidh Brown, who set up the organisation following her death in 2010 from cancer, just nine days short of her 16th birthday.
The appeal has resulted in the creation of Eilidh Brown House, a picturesque respite centre for young people with cancer and their families near Stirling.
“If you think you’ve had it tough getting prostate cancer at 54 or 55, think how it must be for young children and their family. It’s too hellish to comprehend,” he says.
You can donate to Gary Ralston’s fundraising drive by visiting his Justgiving page.
