'He brought laughter': Honoring snooker's taken talent a score of years on.

Everything Paul Hunter truly desired to do was play snooker.

A love for the game, caught at the tender age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his home's central table in Leeds, would lead to a life on the tour that saw him secure six significant titles in a six-year span.

The present year marks 20 years since the beloved Hunter succumbed to cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But in spite of the passing of a generational talent that rose above the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on snooker and those who were close to him remain as powerful today.

'The game was his life': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a million years the boy would become a professional snooker player," Kristina Hunter says.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Hunter's father remembers how his son "cared little for anything else" besides snooker as a child.

"His dedication was constant," he adds. "He would play every night after school."

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a community venue to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the transition from miniature games with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now defunct club in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as practice took priority, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully dedicate himself to carving out a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his first ranking title, the Welsh Open of 1998.

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

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

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

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

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his natural likability, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the modern era.

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

A Brave Battle: Illness and Resilience

In 2005, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple accounts from across the sporting world attest to the man's extraordinary willingness to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The World Championship arena when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to go through that pain."

A Foundation for the Future: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in palaces and castles but in local sports centers across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to children all over the country.

The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas plummeted.

"The idea was for a program to help offer a constructive activity," one coach said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a huge 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 leading figure in the sport stated.

Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence

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 marvellous!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she adds. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be mentioned at all."

Although he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have secured snooker's ultimate trophy is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, begins later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.