'Paul was fun': Honoring the game's taken talent a score of years on.

Everything Paul Hunter ever wanted to do was play snooker.

A competitive passion, sparked at the very young age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in Leeds, would result in a professional career that saw him claim half a dozen major wins in six years.

This year marks two decades since the adored Hunter succumbed to cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But in spite of the tragic departure of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the sport he adored, his influence and memory on the sport and those who followed his career persist as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a million years Paul would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum recalls.

"Yet he just adored it."

His dad remembers how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" other than snooker as a young boy.

"His dedication was constant," he adds. "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 jump from home play with remarkable ease.

His mercurial talent would be nurtured by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now former establishment in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: From Teenager to Champion

With his family's urging to do his homework regularly going unheeded as practice took priority, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully dedicate himself to building a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within a short period, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the lineup featuring elite players only, Hunter was victorious a trio of times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never left him.

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody."

"Upon meeting him you'd like him," Kristina continues. "Paul was fun. He'd make you feel at ease."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "funny, kind" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: His Final Years

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have been the zenith of his talent, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to keep promises to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while undergoing treatment.

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

When he died in autumn 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.

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

An Enduring Legacy: Giving Back

Hunter's true contribution 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 no-cost coaching to children all over the country.

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

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

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

"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: A Lasting Presence

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

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she concludes. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be mentioned at all."

Although he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's ultimate trophy is ingrained in the sport's legend.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, commences later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

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