When Steve Payton had a heart attack in January, doctors at Raigmore Hospital decided to fit the 76-year-old with a stent.
Steve was unruffled. The keen cyclist from Muir of Ord underwent a heart bypass in 2001; compared to that the stent operation was relatively minor.
Still, he expected the procedure to have some impact on his preparations for Etape Loch Ness, the 66-mile race he planned to tackle on his trusty e-bike in just three months’ time.
Not so.
His operation was at 10am on a Friday morning. By that afternoon, Steve was back on his bike.
“I asked them if I can get on my turbo trainer [Steve’s static training bike]”, he recalls. “The surgeon said, yeah of course you can. Just don’t go mad.”
Tackling Etape Caledonia
Steve eventually cycled the Etape Loch Ness in an impressive four hours and 13 minutes.
And later this month, the East Londoner who has lived in the Highlands for 20 years, will line up for the start of the Etape Caledonia.
In his sights is the race’s 55-mile circuit, which starts and ends in Pitlochry by way of Kinloch Rannoch and the foot of Schiehallion.
Steve’s remarkable story is made all the more astonishing given his extensive medical issues.
As well as his heart bypass and stent, he was diagnosed in 2020 with lung cancer, liver cancer and a brain tumour.
Both of the cycle races are on Steve’s bucket list. But despite knowing that his cancer may eventually kill him, he continues to confound doctors with his progress.
It’s a situation he puts down to a positive attitude and keeping fit.
“I’m the hospital’s star patient,” he says. “All the all the medical people say, ‘Steve, whatever you’re doing, keep on doing it. Because whatever you’re doing, you’re doing the right thing’.”
From fighting fit to a heart bypass
Steve has always been fit. Growing up in south-east London he played rugby and ran for his school and county.
So when he was out hillwalking in 2001 and felt tightness in his wrist he thought it was the elastic on his jacket sleeve.
However, the condition worsened, and soon he was unable to walk even 10 feet. Doctors booked him in for a heart bypass.
His next emergency came knocking during Covid.
Steve underwent chemotherapy after doctors discovered cancer in both his lungs and liver.
To cap it off, they also discovered a tumour in his brain that was almost immediately operated on.
Two days after the operation, Steve contracted pneumonia and was so ill that hospital staff phoned his wife Gillian to tell her he wasn’t going to make it through the night.
He pulled through, but the effects of his chemo eventually overcame his positive outlook and dragged him to his lowest ebb.
“It was really rough,” Steve recalls. “When people say that the cure is worse that the disease, this is what they mean.”
Highland cyclist Steve Payton: ‘My fitness is down to my attitude’
Doctors eventually stopped the chemotherapy. That’s when Steve’s cycling took over.
“I was doing about 100 to 130 miles a week,” he says. “A friend of mine who is a coach said to me: ‘Just ride your bike, Steve, you’ve got nothing else to prove.”
Amazingly, Steve’s next CT scan at Raigmore showed his liver cancer had shrunk from 3,000 cubic millimeters to 270 cubic millimeters, less than one-tenth the size.
“I’ve had more CT scans and [the medical staff are] all saying every time I go, ‘No, it’s great. Just keep on with this’,” Steve adds.
Steve says his main weapon in the fight against cancer and heart problems is his positivity.
“My fitness is down to my attitude,” he explains. “But to me it is a normal attitude. I’ve had something, but it’s not going to beat me. I’ve got to live with it, but I’ll live with it as best I can.”
About Etape Caledonia
Limelight Sports Club’s Etape Caledonia describes itself as the UK’s original closed road cycling event. It will take place on Sunday, May 14 with a new 55-mile route option to complement the two existing 40- and 85-mile routes.
Now in its 16th year, the race will welcome up to 5,000 riders to Pitlochry. Last month, Olympic curling champion Eve Muirhead announced she would compete in the event.
