'Paul was fun': Remembering the sport's taken talent a score of years on.

All the Leeds-born talent always wished to do was play snooker.

A love for the game, developed at the age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would culminate in a pro playing days that saw him win six major trophies in half a dozen years.

Now marks two decades since the adored Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the loss of a phenomenal skill that transcended the game he loved, his legacy and impact on the sport and those who followed his career remain as powerful today.

'The game was his life': Early Beginnings

"We could not have predicted in a lifetime our son would become a pro on the circuit," Hunter's mum recalls.

"However he just adored it."

Hunter's father remembers how his son "cared little for anything else" except for snooker as a child.

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the transition from home play with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now former establishment in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his family's urging to do his homework often being ignored as the game dominated, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully dedicate himself to carving out a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within half a decade, their young son had won his initial major win, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the involvement of only the top competitors, Hunter was victorious 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 connected with everybody."

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

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" 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 pin-up for the modern era.

No wonder then, that he was christened 'The Beckham of the Baize'.

A Brave Battle: His Final Years

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 accounts from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary dedication to keep promises to public appearances and promotional work, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The World Championship arena when he competed in the World Championships that year.

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

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

A Foundation for the Future: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in community venues across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to youths all over the country.

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas plummeted.

"The aim remained for a program to help offer a constructive activity," one organizer said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a significant coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children internationally.

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

Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence

Archive videos of their son's matches on YouTube help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she continues. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be recalled."

While he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, begins later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

But for all his accomplishments, 20 years after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.