Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins to sue tobacco industry
by Jim Morahan
ONLY bittersweet memories linger of Alex Higgins’ snooker glory days and nights.
Aptly named The Hurricane, his speed of action of brain and cue was legendary .
Yesterday, the former twice world champion shuffled into a Dublin news conference to announce he’s to sue tobacco companies, claiming they gave him throat cancer.
Gaunt faced, sickly looking with his voice sounding very rough, Higgins said he was now getting better after a recent operation to remove a cancerous growth from his throat.
Journalists strained to hear his laboured words ö of cancer treatment in his native Belfast, of the evils of cigarette smoking, and a tirade against the world snooker body which, he claimed, deprived him of playing.
But his legal action against tobacco was his main concern. “I hope to get substantial damages and I’ll be happy to live three score and ten like everybody else,” said the 50 year old. He lives with his two sisters in a council house in Lisburn, Co. Antrim.
None of his children smoked and he would encourage others not to smoke. “I didn’t really get into smoking tobacco until I was 21, 22.” When he turned professional, snooker was adopted by the tobacco company to sell their products.
Higgins said it was easy to stop smoking; he’d done it without patches and all that nonsense. When he gave up drinking, he didn’t substitute alcohol free lager. “I have a strong willpower. This I may beat, I think I’ll beat it,” he said of the cancer. His general message? “Just forget about cigarettes completely ... I’ve got a taste for ice cream ... but generally, get away from the weed ö it’s going to knock you out, it’s going to kill you, it’s going to do you some kind of damage to one part of your body.”
Higgins blames his condition on the tobacco companies, who pushed cigarettes on him while he was playing in their sponsored tournaments, free cigarettes and even encouragement to smoke while being interviewed on television.
But surely he had free choice? Said Higgins: “I didn’t know, I left home at 15 and I wasn’t the brightest boy.”
Alex said he hadn’t eaten for more than three weeks at one stage, had lost four stones in weight, but was now on the mend. “I was like somebody from Auschwitz ö and I came through it.” Higgins’ solicitor Peter McDonnell, who is currently representing over 200 clients in cases against the tobacco industry, pointed out that 6,500 are killed by tobacco in Ireland each year.
“I am obviously determined to ensure that all those I represent will finally get justice through the legal system in this country,” he said.
“Today’s announcement by Alex Higgins will be a great boost for the many other individuals who are committed to fighting these cases,” said Mr McDonnell.
In the US, all 50 states are being compensated by the tobacco industry for the money each state spent on the healthcare of tobacco victims. “They would be mad to pay out 246 billion dollars if there was no case to be met,” said Mr McDonnell.
© The Examiner, 1999