FORMER SNOOKER STAR Willie Thorne has been put in an induced coma in a Spanish hospital following respiratory failure, it was announced today.
The 66-year-old Englishman, who twice reached the World Championship quarter-finals, said in March he was suffering from leukaemia.
Last week Thorne was taken to hospital with low blood pressure.
A GoFundMe page set up to help pay for his treatment has raised more than two-thirds of its €30,000 target.
Thorne’s carer, Julie O’Neill, wrote on the GoFundMe page: “The doctor called me yesterday (Monday) to inform me that on Sunday Willie went into respiratory failure and he is now in an induced coma and mechanical ventilation.”
O’Neill said she hoped the treatment Thorne was receiving in hospital would “at some point enable him to breathe on his own and be brought out of this coma”.
After being a mainstay in the top-16 throughout the late 1980s and early 90s, Thorne became a snooker commentator for the BBC.
The 1985 UK Championship runner-up has previously spoken of his struggles with a gambling addiction that saw him battling bankruptcy.
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