The fourth Players Tour Championship event, currently underway in Gloucester, will be played in pink t-shirts, as it was last year, to raise awareness for breast cancer.
This was the disease which killed Kay Suzanne, sister of South West Snooker Academy owner Paul Mount. The event is named in her honour.
Cancer does not discriminate. It has affected people of all ages in all walks of life and snooker is no different.
It killed Paul Hunter at the tragically early age of 27. It left Alex Higgins almost unable to speak. It left Doug Mountjoy with only one lung.
Jack Lisowski underwent chemotherapy at only 16. Jimmy White suffered from testicular cancer. John Spencer succumbed to stomach cancer.
It has affected many other players, officials and members of snooker’s travelling community.
This year, Tony Knowles received treatment for throat cancer that thankfully appears to have been successful.
Now Billy O’Connor, an up-and-coming talent who practises at the Grove in Romford, home to Judd Trump, is undergoing chemotherapy for germ cell tumours. Billy is 15.
First season professional Sean O’Sullivan, his friend, tweeted this photograph of Billy in hospital. All in snooker wish him well for his treatment.
Sport thrives on controversy and often fanatical support from the public. But we must remember that it is played by human beings. Talented they may be but they are still at the mercy of life's harsher realities.
The Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy reminds us that though snooker is a game we love, it is only a game.
More...
This was the disease which killed Kay Suzanne, sister of South West Snooker Academy owner Paul Mount. The event is named in her honour.
Cancer does not discriminate. It has affected people of all ages in all walks of life and snooker is no different.
It killed Paul Hunter at the tragically early age of 27. It left Alex Higgins almost unable to speak. It left Doug Mountjoy with only one lung.
Jack Lisowski underwent chemotherapy at only 16. Jimmy White suffered from testicular cancer. John Spencer succumbed to stomach cancer.
It has affected many other players, officials and members of snooker’s travelling community.
This year, Tony Knowles received treatment for throat cancer that thankfully appears to have been successful.
Now Billy O’Connor, an up-and-coming talent who practises at the Grove in Romford, home to Judd Trump, is undergoing chemotherapy for germ cell tumours. Billy is 15.
First season professional Sean O’Sullivan, his friend, tweeted this photograph of Billy in hospital. All in snooker wish him well for his treatment.
Sport thrives on controversy and often fanatical support from the public. But we must remember that it is played by human beings. Talented they may be but they are still at the mercy of life's harsher realities.
The Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy reminds us that though snooker is a game we love, it is only a game.
More...
Comment