'Paul was fun': Honoring the sport's taken talent 20 years on.

All Paul Hunter always wished to do was practice the game.

A competitive passion, developed at the age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his home's central table in his Leeds home, would culminate in a life on the tour that saw him secure half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.

The present year marks a score of years since the beloved Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday.

But notwithstanding the loss of a generational talent that rose above the game he loved, his enduring mark on the game and those who knew him remain as powerful today.

'He just loved it': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a billion years our son would become a professional snooker player," Kristina Hunter says.

"However he just was passionate about it."

Alan Hunter recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a youth.

"He was relentless," he notes. "He practiced every night after school."

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a local club to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the leap from miniature games with remarkable ease.

His mercurial talent would be nurtured by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: From Teenager to Champion

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as the game dominated, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully dedicate himself to building a career in the game.

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

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of exclusively the best, Hunter triumphed three times, in consecutive years.

'A Cheeky Charm': His Enduring Personality

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never left him.

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "witty, generous" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his easy charm, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new 21st Century.

No wonder then, that he was dubbed 'The Beckham of the Baize'.

Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have been the peak of his powers, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to public appearances and promotional work, all while enduring treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The World Championship arena when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in October 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

A Foundation for the Future: 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 no-cost coaching to children all over the country.

The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas plummeted.

"The goal was for a program to help get kids off the street," one organizer said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a huge coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children internationally.

"He would have embraced what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a chairman in the sport stated.

Always Remembered: Two Decades On

Historic matches of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

"I can watch it and I can watch Paul anytime," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she concludes. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled."

While he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is ingrained in the sport's folklore.

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

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