'He was a joy': Remembering the sport's departed star 20 years on.

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

A love for the game, caught at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in his Leeds home, would culminate in a pro playing days that saw him win six major trophies in half a dozen years.

The present year marks 20 years since the adored Hunter succumbed to cancer, days short to his birthday marking 28 years.

But notwithstanding the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that transcended the pastime he cherished, his influence and memory on snooker and those who followed his career endure as strong as ever.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

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

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

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

"He never stopped," he notes. "He competed every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the jump from table top snooker with aplomb.

His natural ability would be developed by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now closed venue in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Quick Success: A Star is Born

With his parents' pleas to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as the game dominated, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully dedicate himself to building a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his maior professional trophy, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious on three occasions, in the early 2000s.

'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never deserted him.

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

"If you met him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "Paul was fun. 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 "funny, kind" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his natural likability, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the modern era.

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

Courage in Crisis: Illness and Resilience

In that year, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the snooker circuit attest to the man's extraordinary commitment to honor obligations to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while going through treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter played on through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's close-knit fraternity 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: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in palaces and castles but in local sports centers across the UK.

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to youths 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 platform to help get kids off the street," one coach said.

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

"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: 20 Years Later

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

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

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she concludes. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be recalled."

Although he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's ultimate trophy is ingrained in the sport's legend.

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

But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.