'He brought laughter': Remembering the game's departed star a score of years on.

All Paul Hunter truly desired to do was play snooker.

A competitive passion, developed at the tender age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a pro playing days that saw him secure half a dozen major wins in six years.

Now marks 20 years since the adored Hunter succumbed to cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the tragic departure of a generational talent that rose above the pastime he cherished, his influence and memory on the sport and those who knew him remain as powerful today.

'The game was his life': A Childhood Obsession

"It was impossible to foresee in a lifetime our son would become a career sportsman," Hunter's mum recalls.

"But he just was passionate about it."

Alan Hunter recounts how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" except for snooker as a youth.

"He never stopped," he adds. "He would play every night after school."

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the jump from home play with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be nurtured by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now closed venue in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: A Star is Born

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter triumphed a trio of times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never left him.

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

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

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "witty, generous" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his effortless appeal, boyish good looks and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new millennium.

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

Facing Adversity: Illness and Resilience

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have signaled the peak of his powers, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple anecdotes from across the snooker circuit highlight the man's extraordinary commitment to fulfill commitments to public appearances and promotional work, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The famous Sheffield venue when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

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

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in local sports centers across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to youths all over the country.

The program was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas dropped significantly.

"The aim remained for a program to help provide a positive outlet," one coach said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a huge coaching programme, which has opened up 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 chairman in the sport stated.

Never Forgotten: A Lasting Presence

Classic footage of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul at any moment," Kristina says. "It's a comfort!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she continues. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be mentioned at all."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have secured snooker's top honor is a part of the sport's history.

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

But for all his accomplishments, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is always remembered.