'He brought laughter': Remembering the sport's departed star a score of years on.

Everything the Leeds-born talent always wished to do was play snooker.

A sporting bug, caught at the very young age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in Leeds, would result in a pro playing days that saw him win six major trophies in half a dozen years.

Now marks two decades since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the game he loved, his influence and memory on the game and those who followed his career endure as strong as ever.

'The game was his life': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a billion years the boy would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum states.

"But he just loved it."

Alan Hunter remembers how his son "cared little for anything else" besides snooker as a young boy.

"He never stopped," he says. "He practiced every night after school."

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the leap from home play with great skill.

His raw skill would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully concentrate on carving out a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within five years, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious a trio of times, in the early 2000s.

'A Cheeky Charm': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never faded.

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"If you met him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina adds. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "funny, kind" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his natural likability, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the modern era.

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

Courage in Crisis: A Fight Against Cancer

In 2005, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple accounts from across the professional tour highlight the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The Crucible Theatre when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in autumn 2006, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

An Enduring Legacy: Giving Back

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

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to children all over the country.

The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas fell sharply.

"The idea was for a scheme to help provide a positive outlet," one coach said.

The Foundation helped pave the way for a huge coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children globally.

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

Always Remembered: 20 Years Later

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 are happy to speak about Paul," she continues. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be recalled."

While he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief 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, begins later this month. The winner will lift the memorial cup.

But for all his successes, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.