'Paul was fun': Remembering the sport's lost great two decades on.

Everything the young snooker player ever wanted to do was practice the game.

A sporting bug, sparked at the tender age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his family's living room table in Leeds, would culminate in a life on the tour that saw him win six significant titles in half a dozen years.

This year marks a score of years since the popular Hunter died from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the loss of a phenomenal skill that transcended the game he loved, his influence and memory on the game and those who followed his career persist as powerful today.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

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

"But he just was passionate about it."

Alan Hunter recalls how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" besides snooker as a child.

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

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a local club to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the jump from miniature games with aplomb.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now defunct club in the area of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully focus on building a career in the game.

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

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

'A Cheeky Charm': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never deserted him.

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"When encountering him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina continues. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "witty, generous" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his natural likability, youthful appearance and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

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

Facing Adversity: His Final Years

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

Multiple accounts from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary dedication to keep promises to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while going through treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter kept playing 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 succumbed in October 2006, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

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

A Lasting Impact: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in royal circles but in local sports centers across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to children all over the country.

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas dropped significantly.

"The aim remained for a scheme to help provide a positive outlet," one organizer said.

The Foundation helped pave the way for a major coaching programme, which has opened up 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.

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Classic footage of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "close to him".

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

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she concludes. "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 highly probable notion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's ultimate trophy is ingrained in the sport's history.

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

But for all his achievements, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is always remembered.