'Paul was fun': Remembering the sport's departed star a score of years on.

Everything Paul Hunter always wished to do was compete on the baize.

A competitive passion, caught at the very young age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would lead to a life on the tour that saw him win half a dozen major wins in six years.

Now marks two decades since the adored Hunter succumbed to cancer, days short to his 28th birthday.

But in spite of the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that transcended the pastime he cherished, his legacy and impact on the game and those who were close to him persist as strong as ever.

'The game was his life': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a lifetime the boy would become a professional snooker player," Kristina Hunter recalls.

"However he just loved it."

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

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the leap from table top snooker with aplomb.

His raw skill would be developed by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: From Teenager to Champion

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework often being ignored as training came first, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully concentrate on forging a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within a short period, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the presence of only the top competitors, Hunter was victorious three times, in the early 2000s.

'A Gracious Competitor': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never left him.

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

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "funny, kind" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and candid way with the press, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new millennium.

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

Facing Adversity: His Final Years

In 2005, a year that should have signaled the height of his career, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple accounts from across the sporting world highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he died in autumn 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its best-loved members.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to lose a child."

An Enduring Legacy: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in royal circles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

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

The program was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas plummeted.

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

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a significant coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children globally.

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

Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence

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

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

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

Even though he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is ingrained in the sport's legend.

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 achievements, 20 years after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.