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

Everything Paul Hunter ever wanted to do was play snooker.

A sporting bug, developed at the very young age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his parents' coffee table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a professional career that saw him claim half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.

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

But notwithstanding the loss of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the game he loved, his enduring mark on the sport and those who knew him persist as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': A Childhood Obsession

"It was impossible to foresee in a lifetime our son would become a pro on the circuit," Hunter's mum says.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Hunter's father recalls how his son "showed no interest in anything else" except for snooker as a child.

"His dedication was constant," he adds. "He competed 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 young Hunter made the jump from table top snooker with aplomb.

His raw skill would be developed by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now defunct club in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as training came first, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully dedicate himself to building a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within half a decade, their young son had won his initial major win, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious a trio of times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': A Legacy of Character

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

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable."

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

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and candid way with the press, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new 21st Century.

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

Courage in Crisis: Illness and Resilience

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

Multiple anecdotes from across the professional tour attest to the man's extraordinary dedication to fulfill commitments to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, 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 succumbed in the mid-2000s, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its most popular brothers.

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

An Enduring Legacy: Giving Back

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in palaces and castles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to youths all over the country.

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

"The idea was for a scheme to help provide a positive outlet," one official said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a huge coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children internationally.

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

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Archive videos of their son's matches via the internet 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 a comfort!"

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she continues. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be recalled."

Although he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is ingrained in the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, begins later this month. The winner will lift the memorial cup.

But for all his successes, 20 years after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is always remembered.