'Paul was fun': Honoring snooker's departed star a score of years on.

Everything the young snooker player truly desired to do was practice the game.

A sporting bug, developed 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 life on the tour that saw him win half a dozen major wins in six years.

Now marks 20 years since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the tragic departure of a once-in-a-generation player that rose above the sport he adored, his influence and memory on the game and those who followed his career persist as strong as ever.

'His passion was clear': A Childhood Obsession

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

"But he just adored it."

Hunter's father recalls how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" except for snooker as a youth.

"He was relentless," he notes. "He competed every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the jump from miniature games with remarkable ease.

His raw skill would be nurtured by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now defunct club in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Quick Success: From Teenager to Champion

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework regularly going unheeded as practice took priority, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of exclusively the best, Hunter triumphed three times, in consecutive years.

'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue

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

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"If you met him you'd like him," Kristina adds. "He brought joy. He'd make you feel at ease."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "witty, generous" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his natural likability, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

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

Facing Adversity: Illness and Resilience

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have signaled the peak of his powers, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple stories from across the sporting world highlight the man's extraordinary dedication to keep promises to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while enduring treatment.

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

When he succumbed in October 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It is tragic," 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 legacy would be felt not in palaces and castles but in local sports centers across the UK.

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to young people all over the country.

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

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

The Foundation helped pave the way for a significant coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children all over the world.

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

Always Remembered: Two Decades On

Classic footage of their son's matches online help his parents stay "connected to him".

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's marvellous!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she concludes. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be spoken of."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is a part of 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 achievements, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is always remembered.