'He brought laughter': Honoring the game's taken talent two decades on.

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

A competitive passion, sparked at the tender age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would lead to a pro playing days that saw him secure six significant titles in half a dozen years.

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

But in spite of the passing of a once-in-a-generation player that rose above the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on snooker and those who knew him remain as strong as ever.

'The game was his life': Early Beginnings

"It was impossible to foresee in a billion years Paul would become a professional snooker player," Kristina Hunter states.

"However he just loved it."

Hunter's father recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a child.

"He was relentless," he says. "He practiced every night after school."

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a community venue to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the jump from table top snooker with great skill.

His natural ability would be coached by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: The Path to Glory

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework often being ignored as training came first, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, the 1998 Welsh Open.

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

'Paul was fun': 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 connected with everybody."

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina adds. "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 "funny, kind" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his natural likability, youthful appearance and candid way with the press, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the modern era.

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

Facing Adversity: His Final Years

In that year, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple accounts from across the snooker circuit 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 played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The famous Sheffield venue when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he died 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 lose a child."

A Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

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

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to children 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 offer a constructive activity," one coach said.

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

"He would have embraced 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

Classic footage of their son's matches on YouTube help his parents stay "close to him".

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

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she concludes. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be spoken of."

While he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have secured snooker's greatest prize is a part of the sport's legend.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, begins 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 character, as much his brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.