'He brought laughter': Remembering snooker's lost great 20 years on.

Everything Paul Hunter truly desired to do was compete on the baize.

A love for the game, caught at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would lead to a life on the tour that saw him secure six significant titles in six years.

Now marks two decades since the adored Hunter succumbed to cancer, just days before to his 28th birthday.

But despite the tragic departure of a generational talent that rose above the game he loved, his influence and memory on the game and those who followed his career persist as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a million years Paul would become a pro on the circuit," his mother recalls.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Hunter's father recalls how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a youth.

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

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a local club to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the leap from table top snooker with aplomb.

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

Metoric Ascent: 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 "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully dedicate himself to carving out a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their young son had won his initial major win, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the lineup featuring only the top competitors, Hunter was victorious three times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his triumphs in the sport, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never faded.

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

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

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his natural likability, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new 21st Century.

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

A Brave Battle: Illness and Resilience

In 2005, a year that should have signaled the peak of his powers, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world attest to the man's extraordinary commitment to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a standing ovation at The famous Sheffield venue when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he died in the mid-2000s, snooker's tight community lost one of its best-loved members.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to go through that pain."

A Foundation for the Future: Giving Back

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

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to young people all over the country.

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

"The idea was for a program to help get kids off the street," one official said.

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

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

Forever in Memory: 20 Years Later

Archive videos 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 marvellous!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she continues. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be recalled."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have secured snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, begins 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 character, as much his brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is never forgotten.