'Paul was fun': Honoring the sport's taken talent 20 years on.

Everything the young snooker player always wished to do was compete on the baize.

A sporting bug, sparked at the very young age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in the city of Leeds, would result in a pro playing days that saw him claim half a dozen major wins in half a dozen years.

This year marks a score of years since the adored Hunter died from cancer, mere days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the loss of a phenomenal skill that transcended the pastime he cherished, his enduring mark on the sport and those who were close to him remain as vibrant now.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

"We'd never have known in a million years our son would become a professional snooker player," his mother recalls.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

His dad remembers how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a youth.

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

After persistently asking 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 transition from table top snooker with remarkable ease.

His natural ability would be nurtured by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now former establishment in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Quick Success: 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 concentrate on carving out a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the presence of only the top competitors, Hunter was victorious three times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Cheeky Charm': A Legacy of Character

But for all his success on the table, 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."

"Upon meeting him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you feel at ease."

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

With his easy charm, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

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

A Brave Battle: Illness and Resilience

In that year, a year that should have signaled the peak of his powers, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while going through treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's tight community lost one of its cherished personalities.

"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 high society but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to children all over the country.

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

"The goal was for a platform to help get kids off the street," one coach said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a huge coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children internationally.

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

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Classic footage of their son's matches on YouTube help his parents stay "close to him".

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

"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."

While he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's ultimate trophy is a part of the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, commences later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

But for all his successes, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.