Alex Higgins - Illness and Death

Illness and Death

For most of his adult life Higgins often smoked up to 60 cigarettes a day. He had cancerous growths removed from his mouth in 1994 and 1996. In June 1998, he was found to have throat cancer; on 13 October of that year, he had throat surgery.

In 2009, Higgins lived in a caravan. In spring 2010, he had pneumonia. In April 2010 Higgins's friends announced that they had set up a campaign to help raise the £20,000 he needed for teeth implants, to enable him to eat properly again and put on weight. Higgins lost his teeth after intensive radiotherapy used to treat his throat cancer. It was reported that since losing them he had been living on liquid food, and had become increasingly depressed, even contemplating suicide. He was too ill to have the implants fitted. Despite his illness he continued to smoke cigarettes and drink heavily until the end of his life.

At the end of his life, Higgins' weight fell to 6 stone (38 kilograms). He lived in sheltered housing on the Donegall Road, Belfast. Despite having once been worth £4 million, he was bankrupt and survived on a £200-a-week disability allowance. He was found dead in bed in his flat on 24 July 2010. The cause of death was a combination of malnutrition, pneumonia, a bronchial condition and throat cancer. His children survive him.