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UK Championship 2016: Jamie Curtis-Barrett inspired by wife’s cancer fight
- Updated: November 21, 2016
The Curtis-Barrett family soon after Freddie was born2016 UK ChampionshipVenue: York Barbican Dates: 22 November – 4 December Coverage: Live on BBC Two, Red Button, BBC Sport app, Connected TVs and online from 26 November.
Looking for life’s “sunshine and rainbows” following the death of his wife at the age of 30 has been indescribably harrowing for Jamie Curtis-Barrett.
But Leanne’s brave battle against breast cancer, and her incredible approach to finding out that the disease had returned and was terminal, has given him the strength to cope.
It has defined his new life as a single parent to two young children and continues to provide the inspiration to chase his snooker dreams.
“She is what gets me through everything,” the 32-year-old told BBC Sport, prior to his debut appearance at this week’s UK Championship in York. “She was given the all-clear in 2014, but we found out the cancer had come back and was terminal on 31 December last year.
‘Don’t stop the party for me’
“We were due to go a New Year’s Eve party and she just said, ‘Don’t stop the party for me’. And that was how she was.
“She was an amazing women. Her attitude was ‘I will beat it’. As long as she had that mentality, it made it a lot easier for me to be able to deal with it. She had that mentality throughout – until she couldn’t fight any longer. She was an inspiration to so many people.
“She fought the hardest thing in life and when I play snooker I feel no pressure because it really doesn’t matter; it’s a game of snooker.”
The couple, from Grimsby, thought they may have “a year or two” left after her terminal diagnosis together with their children, Georgia, six, and Freddie, three. They were intent on making the most of every precious moment they had as a family.
Curtis-Barrett’s love of snooker has helped during the darkest moments and he says his late wife would have wanted him to give his all for the sport he loves
But with her immune system so weak, Leanne got pneumonia in February, meaning she could not have chemotherapy. That allowed the cancer to grow at an aggressive rate and she died on 15 March.
Curtis-Barrett said: “You think, ‘What have we done to deserve this?’ You take life for granted, but we thought we would be able to have time together after Leanne recovered from the cancer the first time.”
The initial diagnosis when she was just 27 was grade three invasive – “the worst it could be” – but they were told that a mastectomy could clear it up completely.
After the operation, Freddie then had to be delivered six weeks early and two weeks later Leanne started chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy. She finished treatment in February 2014, and was soon given the all-clear.
Dealing with the devastation
Eighteen months later the nightmare news came. Following Leanne’s passing, one of the hardest parts was telling Georgia, who had not seen her mum for six weeks because she was in hospital in Hull.
Leanne was transferred back to Grimsby …
