By Elliott West
“He was so laid-back, probably the nicest guy I ever met. I miss those chats and laughs. We used to talk rubbish but it was funny”.
Lindsey Hunter
Introduction
As we celebrate Valentines Day, let’s remember one of the greatest love stories that happened in snooker’s history. It was of course the relationship between the late Paul Hunter and Lindsey Fell. Although a brief moment in time, this was a bond that brought two souls together in happiness and sadness, a meeting that fused two soulmates together, a burning look of love every time their eyes met and produced a beautiful daughter Evie Rose.
Two Hearts Entwined
Lindsey met Paul when he was 18, then a budding snooker player who was setting his sights on success on the snooker baize. Neither knew at the time what a whirlwind romance this would become, marrying seven years later on a sandy beach in the romantic setting of Jamaica. A fairytale wedding that encapsulated true love between two souls who just wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. It was such a special moment that Lindsay later wrote in her diary:
“Paul and I are so in love, so happy, with no worries. We must be the luckiest people alive.”
Lindsey Hunter
However, by the end of that year, Paul started to suffer from intermittent pains in his side, becoming so bad that he had to visit his GP. His doctor, fearing that he was suffering from appendicitis, referred him to a consultant. Recommending an abdominal scan, Paul went ahead and it was then that tragedy first struck. It revealed that although his appendix was fine, there was however six cysts in his abdomen. Further examination via a laparoscopy showed that these cysts were actually cancerous tumours.
Hunter who had by that time won three Masters titles and was tipped for the World Championship crown, set out on a gruelling chemotherapy regime to try and shrink and irradiate the malignant tumours. Visits that involved ongoing cycles of three sessions of three days each.
It was a bolt from the blue and a piece of news that made their love so much stronger if that was ever possible as these two partners worshipped the ground that each walked on. Paul when he received the news, rushed home to Lindsay and his first words to her were :
“Lindsey, do I have cancer?”
Paul Hunter
It hadn’t quite sunk in and as they held each in that moment of ultimate sadness, his wife tried to console and reassure her husband in his hour of need, holding him tight and kissing him to try and relieve the pain of the bad news.
“I took his hands in mine, looked him in the eye and softly said: “Yes babes, you do.” He looked like a frightened child. I rubbed his hands and held him as I whispered: “We’ll get rid of it, you wait and see.”
Lindsey Hunter
The moment was ironic because Paul had remarked earlier when he had been well that he would get cancer, reacting to a cancer advertisement on television that one in three people get the disease.
This would be a battle that Hunter would fight all the way, losing his hair and warmth in his hands and feet. Even his eyelashes fell off as a result of the chemotherapy. However sadly despite the gruelling treatment, it didn’t ultimately work and Paul instead decided to try home treatments to battle the illness. A battle that would ultimately take his young life away from us when he passed away five days before his 28th birthday in October 2006.
The Beckham of the Baize was no more but his memory lives on through the memories we have of his achievements in snooker and the love that still exists between him and his former wife and his daughter. Paul may have died but his spirit lives on and his daughter still has a picture of her remarkable father beside her bed to keep his memory alive.
