He’d been battling cancer for the past 18 months, and even returned to playing again this year but eventually succumbed to cancer of the colon.
He led a very full life, turning pro at the age of 16 and winning 5 major titles, including at hat-trick of Masters, but leaves behind his wife and young daughter, and could have lived a lot more.
In his post match interview following his 2004 Masters title win, Hunter caused a media sensation by admitting he resorted to “Plan B” with Lyndsey Fell, his fiancee, during the interval while 6-2 down. The ‘B’ in “Plan B” purportedly refers to the word “bonk”. Hunter and Fell retired to their hotel room and he recalls “Sex was the last thing on my mind. I just wasn’t in the mood. But I had to do something to break the tension. It was a quick session – around 10 minutes or so – but I felt great afterwards. She jumped in the bath, I had a kip and then played like a dream. I reeled off four centuries in six frames. I won easily.”
Now that is sad.
I’m a snooker fan myself, and reading this, well, so sad..
I didn’t realise that he was that ill. Of course if you’ve got cancer then you are very ill, but I didn’t know that he was that close to death. sad.
its such a sad thing, he always seemed one of the most interesting people in the snooker world. And he was far too young to die.