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

Everything the young snooker player always wished to do was practice the game.

A competitive passion, sparked at the age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his home's central table in his Leeds home, would result in a professional career that saw him secure six significant titles in a six-year span.

Now marks two decades since the beloved Hunter succumbed to cancer, just days before to his 28th birthday.

But despite the loss of a generational talent that transcended the pastime he cherished, his enduring mark on the game and those who followed his career endure as strong as ever.

'The game was his life': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a lifetime Paul would become a career sportsman," Hunter's mum recalls.

"However he just was passionate about it."

His dad recounts how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" besides snooker as a young boy.

"His dedication was constant," he says. "He competed every night after school."

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a community venue to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the jump from table top snooker with great skill.

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

Rapid Rise: From Teenager to Champion

With his family's urging to do his homework regularly going unheeded as practice took priority, his parents took the "gamble" 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 Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the lineup featuring elite players only, Hunter triumphed three times, in the early 2000s.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his triumphs in the sport, 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 adds. "Paul was fun. He'd make you feel at ease."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "humorous, caring" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his natural likability, youthful appearance and honest interview style, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: Illness and Resilience

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have signaled the peak of his powers, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the professional tour highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The World Championship arena when he competed in the World Championships that year.

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

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

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in high society but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to youths all over the country.

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

"The aim remained for a scheme to help offer a constructive activity," one official said.

The Foundation helped pave the way for a significant coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children all over the world.

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

Always Remembered: 20 Years Later

Classic footage of their son's matches online help his parents stay "connected to him".

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she continues. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is ingrained in the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, starts later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

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