'Paul was fun': Honoring the game's taken talent two decades on.

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

A competitive passion, caught at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would result in a pro playing days that saw him secure six major trophies in six years.

This year marks two decades since the adored Hunter passed away from cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday.

But in spite of the passing of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on snooker and those who knew him remain as strong as ever.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a million years the boy would become a career sportsman," his mother states.

"Yet he just adored it."

Hunter's father remembers how his son "showed no interest in anything else" besides snooker as a youth.

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the transition from miniature games with remarkable ease.

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

Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on carving out a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their young son had won his first ranking title, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the lineup featuring exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious a trio of times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never faded.

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

"Upon meeting him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you feel at ease."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "funny, kind" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his natural likability, boyish good looks and candid way with the press, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: Illness and Resilience

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have signaled the height of his career, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world attest to the man's extraordinary dedication to fulfill commitments to public appearances and promotional work, all while going through treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a standing ovation at The famous Sheffield venue when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, 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 Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in royal circles but in community venues 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, anti-social behavior in some areas fell sharply.

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

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a major coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children globally.

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

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Classic footage of their son's matches on YouTube help his parents stay "close to him".

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!"

"We don't mind talking 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 eventually won snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, commences later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his successes, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.