'He brought laughter': Reflecting on snooker's departed star a score of years on.

Everything the young snooker player always wished to do was compete on the baize.

A sporting bug, sparked at the age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his parents' coffee table in his Leeds home, would lead to a pro playing days that saw him secure half a dozen major wins in half a dozen years.

Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter died from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the tragic departure of a generational talent that rose above the game he loved, his influence and memory on the game and those who knew him remain as vibrant now.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

"We'd never have known in a billion years Paul would become a career sportsman," his mother states.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Hunter's father recounts how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" except for snooker as a child.

"He never stopped," 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 young Hunter made the leap from table top snooker with great skill.

His natural ability would be coached by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now former establishment in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: A Star is Born

With his parents' pleas to do his homework regularly going unheeded as the game dominated, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully concentrate on building a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within a short period, their still-teenage son had won his first ranking title, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the presence of elite players only, Hunter won three times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his success on the table, 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 adds. "Paul was fun. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "funny, kind" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his easy charm, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: His Final Years

In 2005, a year that should have signaled the height of his career, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the snooker circuit highlight the man's extraordinary dedication to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

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

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, 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 lose a child."

An Enduring Legacy: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true legacy 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 free snooker sessions to young people all over the country.

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

"The goal was for a platform to help provide a positive outlet," one official said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a major coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children globally.

"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

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 marvellous!"

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she adds. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be mentioned at all."

While he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's top honor is a part of the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, starts 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 character, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.