'He brought laughter': Honoring snooker's lost great two decades on.

All the young snooker player ever wanted to do was compete on the baize.

A love for the game, developed at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his parents' coffee table in Leeds, would culminate in a professional career that saw him claim six significant titles in half a dozen years.

This year marks two decades since the adored Hunter died from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the tragic departure of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the sport he adored, his influence and memory on the game and those who followed his career remain as powerful today.

'The game was his life': A Childhood Obsession

"It was impossible to foresee in a lifetime our son would become a career sportsman," Kristina Hunter states.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Hunter's father recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" besides snooker as a youth.

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a local club to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the leap from table top snooker with remarkable ease.

His mercurial talent would be developed by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now defunct club in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: From Teenager to Champion

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

It was a resounding success. Within half a decade, their still-teenage son had won his maior professional trophy, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

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

'A Gracious Competitor': A Legacy of Character

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

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

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

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "funny, kind" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his natural likability, boyish good looks 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 dubbed 'The Beckham of the Baize'.

Courage in Crisis: A Fight Against Cancer

In that year, a year that should have marked the zenith of his talent, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the professional tour highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to fulfill commitments to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while going through treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The Crucible Theatre when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he died in October 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its best-loved members.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Lasting Impact: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in royal circles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

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

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas fell sharply.

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

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a major 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.

Forever in Memory: 20 Years Later

Historic matches of their son's matches online help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

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

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

Although he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is etched into the sport's legend.

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

But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is never forgotten.