'He brought laughter': Reflecting on the game's departed star a score of years on.

All the Leeds-born talent ever wanted to do was compete on the baize.

A competitive passion, sparked at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in Leeds, would lead to a professional career that saw him win six major trophies in six years.

Now marks two decades since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the loss of a phenomenal skill that transcended the game he loved, his legacy and impact on the sport and those who followed his career endure as powerful today.

'His passion was clear': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a lifetime Paul would become a career sportsman," his mother recalls.

"But he just loved it."

Hunter's father recounts how his son "cared little for anything else" other than snooker as a youth.

"He never stopped," he notes. "He competed every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue 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 raw skill would be developed by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now defunct club in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: From Teenager to Champion

With his family's urging 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 concentrate on forging 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 hardest tournaments to win because of the presence of elite players only, Hunter triumphed a trio of times, in the early 2000s.

'Paul was fun': A Legacy of Character

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never deserted him.

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

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "funny, kind" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his natural likability, youthful appearance and honest interview style, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the modern era.

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

Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer

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

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary willingness to keep promises to public appearances and promotional work, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter played on through the illness and received a standing ovation at The World Championship arena when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in autumn 2006, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its best-loved members.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for 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 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, issues with young people in some areas plummeted.

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

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a significant coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children internationally.

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

Forever in Memory: 20 Years Later

Archive videos of their son's matches on YouTube 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 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."

While he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's ultimate trophy is a part of the sport's legend.

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 successes, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.