'He was a joy': Remembering the sport's departed star a score of years on.

All the young snooker player ever wanted to do was play snooker.

A love for the game, sparked at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his parents' coffee table in Leeds, would lead to a pro playing days that saw him claim six significant titles in six years.

The present year marks two decades since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the tragic departure of a once-in-a-generation player that rose above the pastime he cherished, his enduring mark on the game and those who were close to him persist as powerful today.

'His passion was clear': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a million years our son would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter recalls.

"But he just loved it."

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

"He never stopped," he says. "He practiced 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 leap from miniature games with aplomb.

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

Rapid Rise: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework regularly going unheeded as the game dominated, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within a short period, their young son had won his initial major win, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the presence of elite players only, Hunter was victorious three times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Gracious Competitor': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never faded.

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"If you met him you'd like him," Kristina adds. "He brought joy. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "humorous, caring" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his effortless appeal, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new 21st Century.

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

Courage in Crisis: 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 chemotherapy.

Multiple stories from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while enduring 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 succumbed in autumn 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

A Lasting Impact: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in palaces and castles but in local sports centers across the UK.

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

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

"The aim remained for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one coach said.

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

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

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Historic matches of their son's matches online help his parents stay "connected to him".

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

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she concludes. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be recalled."

Although he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is ingrained in the sport's history.

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

But for all his achievements, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is always remembered.