'He was a joy': Reflecting on the sport's lost great two decades on.

All the Leeds-born talent truly desired to do was practice the game.

A competitive passion, developed at the age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his parents' coffee table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a professional career that saw him win half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.

This year marks two decades since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the passing of a generational talent that transcended the game he loved, his enduring mark on the game and those who followed his career persist as powerful today.

'He just loved it': A Childhood Obsession

"We'd never have known in a billion years the boy would become a career sportsman," Kristina Hunter states.

"But he just adored it."

Alan Hunter remembers how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" besides snooker as a young boy.

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

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a local club to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the transition from table top snooker with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now closed venue in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as the game dominated, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on carving out a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within five years, their young son had won his maior professional trophy, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the lineup featuring exclusively the best, Hunter triumphed three times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': A Legacy of Character

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 got on with everybody."

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

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his effortless appeal, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new millennium.

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

Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer

In 2005, a year that should have marked the zenith of his talent, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple accounts from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to public appearances and promotional work, all while going through treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The World Championship arena when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he died in autumn 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

A Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true contribution 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 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 scheme to help get kids off the street," one official said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a huge coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children globally.

"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 online help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

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

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she continues. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be mentioned at all."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, begins 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 character, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.