'He brought laughter': Reflecting on the game's departed star 20 years on.

All the young snooker player truly desired to do was play snooker.

A competitive passion, developed at the tender age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would lead to a life on the tour that saw him secure half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.

Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, just days before to his 28th birthday.

But despite the tragic departure 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.

'He just loved it': Early Beginnings

"It was impossible to foresee in a lifetime the boy would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter says.

"But he just was passionate about it."

Alan Hunter recalls how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" except for snooker as a young boy.

"His dedication was constant," he notes. "He would play every night after school."

After persistently asking 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 transition from home play with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be developed by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now closed venue in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: A Star is Born

With his mother and father's requests 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 forging a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within half a decade, their still-teenage son had won his first ranking title, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the lineup featuring exclusively the best, Hunter won three times, in the early 2000s.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never faded.

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"Upon meeting him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "Paul was fun. He'd make you feel at ease."

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

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

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

Facing Adversity: His Final Years

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

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

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

When he succumbed in the mid-2000s, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its best-loved members.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to lose a child."

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in royal circles 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 dropped significantly.

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

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

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

Always Remembered: 20 Years Later

Historic matches of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "connected to him".

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she adds. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be spoken of."

Although he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's top honor is ingrained in the sport's legend.

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 achievements, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.