FORMER SNOOKER STAR PLACED INTO INDUCED COMA IN SPAIN

Former snooker star and BBC commentator Willie Thorne has been placed into an induced coma in Torrevieja Spain after suffering respiratory failure.

The 66-year-old, who was diagnosed with leukemia last March was taken to hospital in Spain last week with dangerously low blood pressure.

Thorne reached two World Championship quarter-finals during his career, winning the Mercantile Credit Classic in 1982, his only ranking title, later becoming a BBC commentator and appearing on the 2007 edition of Strictly Come Dancing.

A GoFundMe page set up to help pay for Thorne’s treatment had passed £17,000 by Tuesday afternoon.

His doctor was reported as saying to Thorne’s carer Julie O’Neill that on Sunday Willie went into respiratory failure and he is now in an induced coma and mechanical ventilation.

“They are treating him with three different antibiotics for three types of infections, and we are all hoping that the treatments the hospital are giving him while in this induced coma will help to improve his overall condition and at some point enable him to breathe on his own, to eventually be brought out of this coma”.