Ali Carter can no longer remember World Championship finals he has reached or the Crucible maximum he made, after serious health scares affected his memory.
The Captain is still going strong at 47 years old, playing in Sunday’s English Open final against Mark Williams in Brentwood.
He has six ranking titles to his name and has come close to landing the sport’s biggest prize, losing out to Ronnie O’Sullivan in the 2008 and 2012 Crucible finals.
Carter has long suffered with Crohn’s disease but had a more serious health scare in 2013 when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
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After getting the all-clear, it emerged that cancer had spread to his lung and he feared for his life. Thankfully he made a remarkable recovery, not just from the disease but to the table, winning his first tournament back after chemotherapy at the 2014 General Cup.
Carter’s is an inspirational story but his illnesses have left their mark as his memory of before suffering with cancer is very poor.
He says he can no longer remember those two Sheffield meetings with the Rocket or the 147 break he made at the Crucible in 2008.
‘As a youngster I had Crohn’s really bad,’ Carter told TNT Sports. ‘Three bowel resections and then obviously I got ill with my cancer and that spread into my lung and there was a moment I thought I might not be around, which it’s affected me in a big way.
‘It’s affected my memory. I can’t even remember getting to big finals in the World Championships, the maximum that I made.
‘And that is pure trauma. My brain has shut off that part of my life because it was so traumatic. I’ve got a good memory, it’s just very short.
‘I’ve been up against it but it’s what’s made me the person I am today. Like me or hate me, I am who I am and what I am and I say how I feel. If that doesn’t suit everyone then sorry.’
Carter is referencing the fact that he is not universally popular among snooker fans, possibly partly down to his rivalry with O’Sullivan, but he reckons anyone with anything bad to say about him just doesn’t know him.
‘Generally the people that don’t like me have never met me,’ he said. ‘I might come across like a grumpy old git on the tele but I have got a happy side, somewhere.’
The Captain spoke about the grim reality of chemotherapy after he went through it in 2014, telling the Daily Mail: ‘The chemo was really hard going.
‘There are different types of chemo. I have learned a lot about it. Those who don’t lose their hair are having palliative chemo to prolong their lives, to stop the tumour from growing. But they were trying to cure me, so they had to really go for it.
‘You are in hospital from nine in the morning until half past five or six in the evening, lying down on a drip, two hours chemo, an hour fluids, another hour chemo, two hours fluids. They have to make it go round quickly so you have to have to go to the toilet 20-30 times a day.
‘After that you are absolutely mullered. You are wiped out for three or four days afterwards. The side effects were bad: tiredness, feeling sick (though the anti- sickness drugs stopped me from retching, but they made me constipated), my finger tips were really sore, it is hard to eat anything because your mouth feels as if someone has got sandpaper and gone right round it, your head feels as if it is buzzing.
‘I got some tinnitus but not as bad as some people. My eyesight was funny. You know when you look at the sun and then look down and you can see nothing? It was like that. I couldn’t practice much, just the odd hour here and there. It even affects your libido. It wipes you out. I have told friends I am not sure I could go through it again.
‘When you do it for the first time and have a horrible day, you think the next day might be better. But it is just as bad.’