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

All Paul Hunter ever wanted to do was compete on the baize.

A sporting bug, caught at the tender 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 pro playing days that saw him secure six major trophies in half a dozen years.

The present year marks two decades since the adored Hunter passed away from cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But in spite of the passing of a generational talent that rose above the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on snooker and those who followed his career persist as powerful today.

'His passion was clear': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a lifetime the boy would become a career sportsman," his mother states.

"However he just was passionate about it."

His dad recounts how his son "cared little for anything else" except for snooker as a young boy.

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

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a local club to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the leap from home play with remarkable ease.

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

Rapid Rise: A Star is Born

With his parents' pleas to do his homework often being ignored as practice took priority, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully focus on building a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within a short period, 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 lineup featuring only the top competitors, Hunter won a trio of times, in the early 2000s.

'Paul was fun': His Enduring Personality

But for all his triumphs in the sport, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never left him.

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"If you met him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you comfortable."

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

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

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

A Brave Battle: His Final Years

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

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

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The famous Sheffield venue when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he died in the mid-2000s, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child."

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in palaces and castles but in community venues across the UK.

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

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

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

The Foundation helped pave the way for a significant coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children internationally.

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

Always Remembered: 20 Years Later

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

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

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she concludes. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be mentioned at all."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is a part of the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, commences 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 always remembered.