'He brought laughter': Remembering snooker's lost great a score of years on.

Everything the young snooker player always wished to do was play snooker.

A sporting bug, caught at the very young age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in Leeds, would lead to a professional career that saw him claim six significant titles in half a dozen years.

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

But in spite of the tragic departure of a generational talent that went beyond the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on the game 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 the boy would become a pro on the circuit," Hunter's mum recalls.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Hunter's father remembers how his son "showed no interest in anything else" except for snooker as a young boy.

"His dedication was constant," he says. "He would play every night after school."

After repeatedly pleading with 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 leap from miniature games with remarkable ease.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now former establishment in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: From Teenager to Champion

With his family's urging to do his homework often being ignored as practice took priority, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on building a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his maior professional trophy, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the presence of only the top competitors, Hunter was victorious on three occasions, in the early 2000s.

'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never left him.

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody."

"When encountering him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina adds. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "funny, kind" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his effortless appeal, youthful appearance and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

No wonder then, that he was nicknamed 'A Sporting Icon'.

A Brave Battle: A Fight Against Cancer

In 2005, a year that should have signaled the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the professional tour attest to the man's extraordinary willingness to honor obligations to public appearances and promotional work, all while going through treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in the mid-2000s, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its best-loved members.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to go through that pain."

A Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

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

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas dropped significantly.

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

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a huge 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 senior official in the sport stated.

Always Remembered: 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 anytime," Kristina says. "It's wonderful!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be spoken of."

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 synonymous, starts later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his achievements, 20 years after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.