When Alex Higgins finally succumbed to throat cancer at the age of 61 it was not only Belfast that lost one of its favourite sons.

The fiery Ulsterman, found dead at his Belfast flat on Saturday, made the Manchester region his adopted home while at the height of his fame – and occasional notoriety.

Higgins – the self-styled ‘people’s champion’ – was a regular fixture in local night spots and would happily chat to punters.

Later, as his career and health spiralled downwards, he was reduced to challenging all-comers in snooker halls for £5 a frame.

Higgins, snooker’s first anti-hero, spent nearly two decades living in the region after first coming over to play in exhibition matches around the time of the first of his two world championship wins, in 1972.

Sold-out halls from Wythenshawe to Oldham were packed to the rafters with fans eager to get a glimpse of the then-dour sport’s new sensation – the so-called ‘Hurricane’ who fizzed around the baize making impossible pots look easy.

Higgins, the product of a working-class estate, was met with a warm welcome – and one which he reciprocated when he eventually travelled across the water to make the region his permanent home in the 1980s.

Cheshire talent spotter Will Robinson, 43, was Higgins’ personal assistant for five years during that decade and the pair remained close to the end.

"He absolutely loved it here," said Will. "He loved the people and he loved the city."

A man with a taste for booze which would torment him in later life, Higgins quickly made a beeline for some of Manchester’s most exclusive haunts.

"He used to head to the old Soames Casino on George Street, Brambles and Charlie Chans," said Will. "Those were the places to be back then.

"He had the whole whole town mapped out. He understood Manchester. I think he knew it better when the lights were on.

"In fact, that was the only way he knew it was time to go home – when it got light."

Will, who first met Higgins when he was a 15-year-old caddying at Mere Golf Club, said that wherever he was playing he always itched to come to his northern ‘home’.

"I can remember after he lost the final of the Masters at Wembley in 1987, 9-8 to Dennis Taylor," he said. "He looked at me and said ‘Let’s go back to Manchester’.

"I think we got back at about midnight, but he still went out."

Higgins lived in Ramsbottom and Didsbury – but despite his taste for the high life, it was in leafy Mottram St Andrews where friends said he felt most at home. "He was comfortable there," said Will. "He had the golf club not far away, Wilmslow 10 minutes away and Yesterday’s, his favourite nightspot in Alderley Edge, was just down the road."

Higgins was also a big football fan.

"He loved Manchester United," said Will. "He was friends with George Best and Bryan Robson. The club have always been great with him. He also loved going to the races at Haydock."

Comparisons with Best, his hell-raising compatriot, were inevitable. Both came from Belfast to Manchester. Both were geniuses who helped transform the image of their chosen sports. And both were troubled souls with a fondness for the bottle.

Higgins, like Best, could hold an audience in the palm of his hand with his flair and breathtaking skill.

But he could also be hopelessly-self destructive and often showed his angry side. He could be violent and had a damaging hatred of snooker’s authorities.

In 1986, he headbutted a referee at the UK Championship. Despite being handed a £12,000 fine and five-tournament ban, it didn’t stop him striking again – this time with a hefty punch to the stomach of media liaison officer Coin Randle at the 1990 world championship.

He also threatened to have Dennis Taylor, the bespectacled winner of the epic 1985 final, ‘shot’.

Higgins, who won the world title a second time in 1982, earned millions in the years when snooker enjoyed huge TV audiences.

Many would say that popularity was down to Higgins himself, who was a breath of fresh air compared to his often stuffy rivals. He was spontaneous, flamboyant – and the nation loved him for it.

In an age when many snooker players would take an eternity over a seemingly straightforward shot, his speed and cavalier rejection of caution set him aside.

But he blew his fortune – and much of his reputation – in the years leading up to his death.

Left penniless after losing his luxury house to the taxman, he was divorced by two wives – Cara and Lynn – and eventually stopped from seeing his two children, Lauren and Jordan.

His health failing and his money gone, Higgins moved back to Northern Ireland to be with those who knew him best. He probably did not know it at the time, but the wanderer was going home to die.

Despite the sad inevitably of his eventual demise, it was in Manchester where a last, desperate bid to save him was launched.

Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998 Higgins’ health had deteriorated so badly his physical appearance – once slim, angular and handsome – became a gruesome caricature of its former self. Always fashion conscious, he took to wearing cravattes to cover the scars on his neck caused by surgery.

But when he was captured in a hauntingly stark newspaper image earlier this year it was clear cancer had ravaged his body – leaving him weighing less than five stones.

That moved Will to tears – and action. He organised a fundraising event at Yang Sing restaurant, close to the Higgins' former haunts in Chinatown.

Former pals from across the region gathered on an emotional night that raised £15,000 – and gave the desperately ill Hurricane the hope of an operation to provide false teeth.

But when surgeons in Spain refused to operate due to his poor health, there was nothing more to be done.

Of the £15,000, £10,000 remains. Will said that would go towards a fitting funeral for Higgins. For a final time, Manchester will be lending a helping hand to its wayward, adopted son.

"It’s going to pay for a great send-off," said Will. "And one he deserves."

Life and times of wayward ace:

• 1949 – March 19, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
• 1960 – Starts playing snooker at the age of 11.
• 1963 – Leaves Northern Ireland to begin a career as a jockey in England, but is released having never ridden in public and returns to Belfast.
• 1968 – Wins the All-Ireland and Northern Ireland amateur snooker championships.
• 1972 – After turning professional, he wins the snooker World Championship at the first attempt, beating John Spencer 37-32 in the final. It makes him the youngest winner of the world title, a record only beaten by a 21-year-old Stephen Hendry in 1990.
• 1976 – Reaches a second World Championship final, but loses to Ray Reardon 27-16.
• 1978 – Wins The Masters for the first time as he beats Cliff Thorburn 7-5.
• 1980 – Loses to Thorburn 18-16 in his third World Championship final.
• 1981 – Beats Terry Griffiths to win second Masters title.
• 1982 – In the crowning moment of his career, wins his second world title by beating Reardon 18-15.
• 1983 – Wins the UK Championship by beating Steve Davis 16-15 in the final in Preston.
• 1984 – Loses UK Championship final to Davis.
• 1986 – Head-butts UK Championship tournament director Paul Hatherell, he is fined £12,000 and banned from five tournaments.
• 1987 – Loses Masters final to Dennis Taylor
• 1990 – Threatens to have Taylor shot and then punches a tournament director at the World Championship, he is banned for the rest of the season.
• 1995 – Helps the European Pool team beat the USA in the Mosconi Cup.
• 1998 – In October, undergoes surgery to remove cancer from his throat.
• 2005-06 – Appears at the Irish Professional Championship, but fails to get past the first round.
• 2010 – July 24, dies at the age of 61 after a long battle with cancer.

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