He was a leading light in snooker who seemed on course for huge success, then at just 27 years old, Paul Hunter died from a rare cancer. His widow Lindsy, now left alone with daughter Evie, has written a book about his fight. She talks to Women's Editor Sarah Foster.

IT was an ordinary night out, yet for the straight-laced Lindsey Fell, it would result in an epiphany. She'd planned to hit a club in Leeds, her best friend Nicky at her side, and Nicky's younger cousin Paul had said he'd drive the pair to town. That fateful journey, in 1997, made Lindsey start to fall in love.

"Later that night, back home, I was a bit surprised when I found myself thinking about him," she writes. "His smile kept popping into my head, and I realised that I was smiling myself when I pictured it. My first night with Paul Hunter - and I hadn't a clue where it would all lead..."

Though she could hardly have foreseen it, she ended up becoming Paul's wife. From being a promising snooker player but with the temperament of a boy, she helped him grow into a man and watched him flourish as a champion.

Yet with her happiness complete, a dark cloud entered Lindsey's world, and what both she and Paul dismissed as just a blip in Paul's good health turned out in fact to be a cancer that would take away his life. In Lindsey's memoir, called Unbreakable, she's keen to represent the good times.

"He was a typical 18-year-old, obviously quite successful at snooker, and living his life, then I came along, quite sensible and serious," she says. "At first I thought he was just a young lad, my best friend's cousin, but a few weeks into knowing him, I realised he was something special and fell in love with him. He was just a very unusual person - always laughing and smiling, just amazing to be around. He was very down-to-earth and normal and yet very special with it."

Paul's dazzling talent with a snooker cue emerged at only three years old and by the age of seven or eight he'd started playing - and beating - men. When Lindsey talks about his skill, she makes it clear that he was blessed.

"I think with Paul it was just such a natural gift," says the 32-year-old, who lives in Leeds. "It was who he was meant to be, really, and his personality and his charisma made him an even better player. He was like the ice man - he just kept his cool and could take the pressure from the best of the players. He was so lovely that you never knew whether he'd won or lost a match - he'd be smiling either way."

While Lindsey felt from the beginning that she and Paul were meant to be, it seemed that Paul - four years her junior - took quite some time to be convinced. A Jack-the-lad and ladies' man, he'd played the field throughout his teens, and in the early years with Lindsey he kept returning to his ex. For all that this broke Lindsey's heart, she was determined to hang on.

"He was on the snooker circuit with young girls throwing themselves at his feet, but by the time he got to 21, he realised he needed to knuckle down and do some hard work," she says. "Once everything was cleared up and we were together 100 per cent it was solid till the end. I think I intrigued him like he intrigued me, so we made a good match."

With Lindsey's stabilising influence, Paul found success within his grasp. He took on manager Brandon Parker, who soon became a valued friend, and with his wild days now behind him, it seemed his talent couldn't fail. The Masters championship, in 2001, made Paul an instant household name.

"It was amazing - it catapulted him to being a huge star," recalls Lindsey. "He was behind and went on to win and then Paul, being his typical self, put it down to 'Plan B' (he'd slept with Lindsey in a break, which he related to the Press), but really it was his talent that won him the tournament. I had a normal life so seeing that in the newspapers was obviously quite weird."

The couple married in 2004 and started trying for a baby. It was a fairy tale existence which Lindsey thought would never end - then with Paul's "grumbling appendix" the road to misery began. "He had a pain in his side and went off to the doctor's thinking it was a grumbling appendix," says Lindsey. "Cancer just wasn't in our thoughts at all, then they did a scan and not only did they find that he only had one kidney, but they also saw these cysts. You're trying for a baby and the next thing, you're facing chemotherapy."

The cysts the scan had brought to light were neuro-endocrine tumours, a rare and potent form of cancer. With Paul about to start his treatment Lindsey found out she was pregnant. "It was literally three days before he was due to start his chemotherapy, so it was a blessing really," she says. "I don't know what I would have done without the pregnancy and without Evie."

And so Paul's fight for life began, with Lindsey always at his side. Despite the ravages of the treatment she says he never once gave in. "Looking back I think 'gosh, how on earth did I cope day to day', but Paul was so courageous, he was so strong," says Lindsey. "There weren't many weak moments when he did break down - he never ever said 'why me?'. When it came to it he coped amazingly."

News of Paul's illness quickly spread and sparked a wave of public sympathy. He played in matches when he could, despite his ever-worsening health, and Lindsey says this kept him going through his final months of life. "Snooker to Paul was one of the luxuries of his life and to take that away from him would just have been heartbreaking, so we all stood by him," says Lindsey. "Once you have lost your hair it's quite an obvious thing. I think people felt sorry for him, but he just kept battling on really."

The couple's daughter, Evie Rose, was born on Boxing Day 2005, and Paul had ten more months of life before the cancer finally beat him. He was just 27 years old when last October, he passed away. Now left without her precious husband, what Lindsey cherishes are memories.

"I've kept all the good luck cards and letters from when Paul fell poorly and when he passed away, and people's words were just so kind. But that was Paul - he stopped and signed autographs and was so kind to everybody," she says. "It's a huge, huge loss to snooker and the world because he was just an amazing person. People say 'how have you coped?', but when you're around someone like that you have to cope because they're such an inspiration."

Unbreakable, My Life with Paul: A Story of Extraordinary Courage and Love by Lindsey Hunter (HarperCollins, £12.99).