'Paul was fun': Honoring the sport's lost great a score of years on.

Everything the young snooker player ever wanted to do was play snooker.

A love for the game, caught at the age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his home's central table in his Leeds home, would culminate in a life on the tour that saw him secure six major trophies in half a dozen years.

Now marks two decades since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the passing of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on the sport and those who were close to him remain as strong as ever.

'His passion was clear': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a billion years our son would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter recalls.

"However he just loved it."

Hunter's father recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a child.

"He was relentless," he adds. "He would play every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the leap from home play with aplomb.

His raw skill would be developed by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now defunct club in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: From Teenager to Champion

With his parents' pleas to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully concentrate on building a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious three times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Gracious Competitor': A Legacy of Character

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never left him.

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"If you met him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "humorous, caring" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

No wonder then, that he was christened 'The Snooker World's Beckham'.

Facing Adversity: Illness and Resilience

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple accounts from across the snooker circuit speak of the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The World Championship arena when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in autumn 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its cherished personalities.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to go through that pain."

A Lasting Impact: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in palaces and castles but in local sports centers across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to children all over the country.

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas fell sharply.

"The goal was for a program to help provide a positive outlet," one coach said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a huge coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children all over the world.

"Paul would have loved what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a leading figure in the sport stated.

Never Forgotten: Two Decades On

Archive videos of their son's matches online help his parents stay "close to him".

"I can access it and I can watch Paul at any moment," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!"

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she continues. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be spoken of."

Although he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is a part of the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, starts later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

But for all his successes, 20 years after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.