'Paul was fun': Honoring the sport's lost great 20 years on.

Everything the young snooker player truly desired to do was practice the game.

A sporting bug, caught at the age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a life on the tour that saw him claim half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.

Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his birthday marking 28 years.

But notwithstanding the passing of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the pastime he cherished, his enduring mark on the game and those who were close to him remain as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': A Childhood Obsession

"It was impossible to foresee in a million years Paul would become a career sportsman," his mother recalls.

"However he just adored it."

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

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

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a community venue to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the transition from home play with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the area of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: A Star is Born

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

It was a resounding success. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the lineup featuring elite players only, Hunter triumphed 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 down-to-earth charisma never faded.

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"When encountering him you'd take to him," Kristina adds. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his effortless appeal, youthful appearance and candid way with the press, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the modern era.

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

Courage in Crisis: Illness and Resilience

In 2005, a year that should have marked the peak of his powers, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple accounts from across the professional tour highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The famous Sheffield venue when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in autumn 2006, 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 suffer such a loss."

A Lasting Impact: Giving Back

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in royal circles but in snooker halls and clubs 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 initiative was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas fell sharply.

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

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a significant coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children all over the world.

"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: A Lasting Presence

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

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she concludes. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be spoken of."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have secured snooker's ultimate trophy is a part of the sport's history.

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

But for all his accomplishments, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.