'He brought laughter': Remembering the sport's taken talent two decades on.

Everything Paul Hunter ever wanted to do was play snooker.

A sporting bug, caught at the 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 secure half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.

The present year marks two decades since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the passing of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the game he loved, his enduring mark on snooker and those who were close to him remain as strong as ever.

'His passion was clear': A Childhood Obsession

"We'd never have known in a lifetime the boy would become a pro on the circuit," his mother recalls.

"But he just adored it."

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

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

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a community venue to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the leap from home play with aplomb.

His raw skill would be developed by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, 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 increasingly falling on deaf ears as training came first, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, their still-teenage son had won his first ranking title, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the involvement of only the top competitors, Hunter was victorious three times, in consecutive years.

'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never faded.

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody."

"Upon meeting him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina states. "Paul was fun. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's widow 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, boyish good looks and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the modern era.

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

Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer

In 2005, a year that should have signaled the zenith of his talent, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple anecdotes from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while going through treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he passed away 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 impact would be felt not in palaces and castles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The charity in his name, 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 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 major coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children internationally.

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

Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence

Historic matches of their son's matches on YouTube help his parents stay "connected to him".

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul at any moment," Kristina says. "It's wonderful!"

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

While he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is ingrained in the sport's folklore.

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

But for all his accomplishments, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is never forgotten.