'He was a joy': Reflecting on the game's departed star a score of years on.

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

A sporting bug, caught at the age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his parents' coffee table in his Leeds home, would result in a professional career that saw him claim six major trophies in a six-year span.

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

But notwithstanding the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that transcended the game he loved, his influence and memory on snooker and those who followed his career persist as vibrant now.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

"It was impossible to foresee in a lifetime our son would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter states.

"However he just adored it."

His dad recalls how his son "showed no interest in anything else" except for snooker as a child.

"He never stopped," he says. "He practiced every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the leap from miniature games with aplomb.

His raw skill would be developed by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now former establishment in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his family's urging to do his homework often being ignored as practice took priority, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the 1998 Welsh Open.

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

'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his triumphs in the sport, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never left him.

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

"If you met him you'd take to him," Kristina continues. "Paul was fun. He'd make you feel at ease."

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

With his natural likability, handsome features and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new millennium.

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

Facing Adversity: His Final Years

In that year, a year that should have signaled the peak of his powers, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple accounts from across the snooker circuit speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a standing ovation at The famous Sheffield venue when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in autumn 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its cherished personalities.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child."

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true impact 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 scheme was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas dropped significantly.

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

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a significant coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children all over the world.

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

Always Remembered: Two Decades On

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

"I can access it and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!"

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

While he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have secured snooker's top honor is a part of the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, commences later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his achievements, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.