'Paul was fun': Reflecting on the sport's taken talent 20 years on.

All the young snooker player truly desired to do was play snooker.

A competitive passion, developed at the very young age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in Leeds, would lead to a professional career that saw him win six significant titles in a six-year span.

Now marks a score of years since the adored Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday.

But despite the tragic departure of a once-in-a-generation player that transcended the sport he adored, his influence and memory on the sport and those who were close to him persist as vibrant now.

'He just loved it': Early Beginnings

"It was impossible to foresee in a lifetime the boy would become a career sportsman," Kristina Hunter states.

"Yet he just loved it."

Hunter's father remembers how his son "cared little for anything else" other than snooker as a child.

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the leap from table top snooker with remarkable ease.

His natural ability would be coached by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now defunct club in the area of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: The Path to Glory

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

It paid off in spades. Within a short period, their young son had won his maior professional trophy, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of elite players only, Hunter was victorious three times, in consecutive years.

'Paul was fun': A Legacy of Character

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never deserted him.

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

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

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "witty, generous" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the modern era.

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

Courage in Crisis: His Final Years

In that year, a year that should have marked the zenith of his talent, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple accounts from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary dedication to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

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

When he succumbed in autumn 2006, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

A Lasting Impact: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in royal circles but in local sports centers across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to youths all over the country.

The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas dropped significantly.

"The goal was for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one official said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a significant coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children all over the world.

"He would have embraced what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a leading figure in the sport stated.

Never Forgotten: Two Decades On

Historic matches of their son's matches online 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 like to reminisce about Paul," she continues. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled."

While he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is ingrained in the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, commences later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

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