'Paul was fun': Honoring the game's taken talent 20 years on.

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

A sporting bug, caught at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in Leeds, would lead to a life on the tour that saw him win half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.

Now marks two decades since the adored Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that rose above the sport he adored, his enduring mark on snooker and those who knew him remain as powerful today.

'He just loved it': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a million years Paul would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter says.

"Yet he just adored it."

Alan Hunter recalls how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" besides snooker as a child.

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the jump from home play with aplomb.

His raw skill would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework often being ignored as the game dominated, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully concentrate on forging a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their young son had won his initial major win, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the presence of elite players only, Hunter was victorious on three occasions, in the early 2000s.

'A Cheeky Charm': The Man Behind the Cue

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

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

"If you met him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you feel at ease."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "humorous, caring" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his natural likability, youthful appearance and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new millennium.

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

A Brave Battle: Illness and Resilience

In that year, a year that should have been the zenith of his talent, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the sporting world highlight the man's extraordinary dedication to keep promises to public appearances and promotional work, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

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

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child."

An Enduring Legacy: Giving Back

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in local sports centers 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 scheme was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas plummeted.

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

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

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

Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence

Historic matches of their son's matches online help his parents stay "close to him".

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul at any moment," Kristina says. "It's a comfort!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she continues. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be spoken of."

While he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's top honor is a part of the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, starts later this month. The winner will lift the memorial cup.

But for all his achievements, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.