'He was a joy': Remembering the sport's taken talent a score of years on.

Everything Paul Hunter always wished to do was play snooker.

A love for the game, developed at the tender age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his parents' coffee table in his Leeds home, would lead to a pro playing days that saw him win half a dozen major wins in six years.

The present year marks 20 years since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the passing of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on the game and those who followed his career endure as strong as ever.

'His passion was clear': A Childhood Obsession

"It was impossible to foresee in a billion years our son would become a pro on the circuit," his mother recalls.

"Yet he just loved it."

Hunter's father recalls how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" besides snooker as a young boy.

"He was relentless," he notes. "He competed every night after school."

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a community venue to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the jump from home play with great skill.

His natural ability would be coached by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now closed venue in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework regularly going unheeded as practice took priority, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully dedicate himself to forging a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, 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 involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter triumphed three times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Cheeky Charm': The Man Behind the Cue

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

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"If you met him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you feel at ease."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "witty, generous" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his easy charm, youthful appearance and candid way with the press, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the modern era.

No wonder then, that he was christened 'The Beckham of the Baize'.

A Brave Battle: His Final Years

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have signaled the zenith of his talent, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple anecdotes from across the snooker circuit highlight the man's extraordinary commitment 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 tumultuous reception at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in October 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its best-loved members.

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

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in palaces and castles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to children all over the country.

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

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

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

"Paul would have loved what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a chairman in the sport stated.

Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence

Archive videos of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she concludes. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be recalled."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's ultimate trophy is a part of the sport's folklore.

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

But for all his accomplishments, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is never forgotten.