'He brought laughter': Reflecting on the game's lost great a score of years on.

All the Leeds-born talent truly desired to do was practice the game.

A competitive passion, caught at the very young age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his home's central table in Leeds, would result in a pro playing days that saw him claim six major trophies in a six-year span.

This year marks 20 years since the beloved Hunter died from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the loss of a phenomenal skill that rose above the sport he adored, his enduring mark on the sport and those who were close to him endure as powerful today.

'The game was his life': Early Beginnings

"It was impossible to foresee in a lifetime Paul would become a professional snooker player," Kristina Hunter says.

"But he just adored it."

Alan Hunter recalls how his son "showed no interest in anything else" except for snooker as a child.

"He never stopped," he notes. "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 budding player made the jump from miniature games with great skill.

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

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his family's urging to do his homework regularly going unheeded as practice took priority, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully focus on carving out a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within a short period, their young son had won his initial major win, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the lineup featuring exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious three times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his triumphs in the sport, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never left him.

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

"Upon meeting him you'd like him," Kristina adds. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "funny, kind" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his easy charm, boyish good looks and candid way with the press, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

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

Courage in Crisis: A Fight Against Cancer

In that year, a year that should have signaled the zenith of his talent, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the snooker circuit speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a standing ovation at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in the mid-2000s, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

A Foundation for the Future: Giving Back

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in palaces and castles but in community venues across the UK.

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

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

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

The Foundation helped pave the way for a major coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children internationally.

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

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

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

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

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

While he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have secured snooker's ultimate trophy is etched into the sport's legend.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, begins later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

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 forever celebrated.