'He was a joy': Honoring the sport's departed star two decades on.

Everything the Leeds-born talent ever wanted to do was practice the game.

A sporting bug, caught at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would culminate in a professional career that saw him claim six major trophies in six years.

The present year marks a score of years since the adored Hunter died from cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the sport he adored, his enduring mark on the sport and those who were close to him endure as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': Early Beginnings

"We could not have predicted in a lifetime the boy would become a career sportsman," his mother says.

"But he just loved it."

Alan Hunter remembers how his son "cared little for anything else" other than snooker as a child.

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the leap from miniature games with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be developed by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, 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 proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the involvement of elite players only, Hunter was victorious a trio of times, in the early 2000s.

'A Cheeky Charm': A Legacy of Character

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never faded.

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"If you met him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "Paul was fun. He'd make you relaxed."

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

With his effortless appeal, boyish good looks and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

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

Facing Adversity: His Final Years

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have marked the zenith of his talent, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary willingness to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a standing ovation at The Crucible Theatre when he played at the World Championships that year.

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

"It's awful," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to go through that pain."

A Lasting Impact: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in high society but in community venues across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to children all over the country.

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

"The aim remained for a platform to help provide a positive outlet," one official said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a huge 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 senior official in the sport stated.

Never Forgotten: A Lasting Presence

Classic footage of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "close to him".

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she concludes. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be mentioned at all."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's top honor 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 memorial cup.

But for all his successes, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is always remembered.