'He brought laughter': Honoring the sport's departed star two decades on.

All the young snooker player truly desired to do was compete on the baize.

A love for the game, developed at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his parents' coffee table in Leeds, would result in a life on the tour that saw him win half a dozen major wins in six years.

Now marks two decades since the beloved Hunter died from cancer, mere days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the loss of a phenomenal skill that transcended the game he loved, his legacy and impact on snooker and those who knew him persist as powerful today.

'The game was his life': A Childhood Obsession

"We could not have predicted in a lifetime the boy would become a career sportsman," Kristina Hunter recalls.

"However he just was passionate about it."

Alan Hunter remembers how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" other than snooker as a child.

"He was relentless," he says. "He would play every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the leap from table top snooker with remarkable ease.

His natural ability would be developed by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: A Star is Born

With his family's urging to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as training came first, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully concentrate on building a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the involvement of elite players only, Hunter won a trio of times, in the early 2000s.

'A Cheeky Charm': A Legacy of Character

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

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

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina adds. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable."

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

With his natural likability, boyish good looks and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the modern era.

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

Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer

In that year, a year that should have been the peak of his powers, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple accounts from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary dedication to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The famous Sheffield venue when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in autumn 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its cherished personalities.

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

An Enduring Legacy: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in palaces and castles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to young people all over the country.

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

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

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a major coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children globally.

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

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

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

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

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be mentioned at all."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have secured snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, commences later this month. The winner will lift the memorial cup.

But for all his achievements, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.