'He brought laughter': Remembering the sport's departed star 20 years on.

All the young snooker player ever wanted to do was play snooker.

A sporting bug, caught at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would culminate in a life on the tour that saw him win half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.

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

But despite the passing of a phenomenal skill that transcended the sport he adored, his influence and memory on the game and those who knew him remain as strong as ever.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

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

"But he just adored it."

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

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

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the leap from table top snooker with aplomb.

His natural ability would be developed by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Quick Success: From Teenager to Champion

With his family's urging to do his homework often being ignored as the game dominated, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully dedicate himself to carving out a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his maior professional trophy, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of elite players only, Hunter won on three occasions, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'Paul was fun': His Enduring Personality

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

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody."

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

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "funny, kind" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his natural likability, boyish good looks and candid way with the press, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

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

A Brave Battle: A Fight Against Cancer

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

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

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in the mid-2000s, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its best-loved members.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Lasting Impact: Giving Back

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in high society but in community venues across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to youths all over the country.

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

"The idea was for a program to help offer a constructive activity," one official said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a major 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 leading figure 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 bring it up and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's a comfort!"

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

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have secured snooker's ultimate trophy is ingrained in 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 accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.