'He brought laughter': Honoring snooker's lost great a score of years on.

Everything Paul Hunter always wished to do was compete on the baize.

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

This year marks 20 years since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But in spite of the passing of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the pastime he cherished, his influence and memory on snooker and those who followed his career persist as powerful today.

'The game was his life': The Formative Years

"It was impossible to foresee in a million years Paul would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter says.

"However he just adored it."

Alan Hunter remembers how his son "showed no interest in anything else" besides snooker as a youth.

"He never stopped," he adds. "He would play 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 budding player made the transition from table top snooker with aplomb.

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

Quick Success: A Star is Born

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as practice took priority, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully concentrate on carving out a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his maior professional trophy, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the lineup featuring elite players only, Hunter won three times, in consecutive years.

'A Cheeky Charm': His Enduring Personality

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

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

"When encountering him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina continues. "Paul was fun. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "witty, generous" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

No wonder then, that he was christened 'A Sporting Icon'.

Courage in Crisis: A Fight Against Cancer

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have marked the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple accounts from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to public appearances and promotional work, all while going through treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The Crucible Theatre when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its cherished personalities.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to go through that pain."

An Enduring Legacy: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to youths all over the country.

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas fell sharply.

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

The Foundation helped pave the way for a significant coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children globally.

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

Never Forgotten: A Lasting Presence

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

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she adds. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be mentioned at all."

Although he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is etched into the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, commences later this month. The winner will lift the memorial cup.

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.