'He was a joy': Honoring the sport's taken talent a score of years on.

All Paul Hunter always wished to do was play snooker.

A love for the game, caught at the tender age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his parents' coffee table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a pro playing days that saw him win half a dozen major wins in six years.

Now marks 20 years since the popular Hunter died from cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday.

But despite the passing of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the game he loved, his enduring mark on the sport and those who knew him endure as powerful today.

'The game was his life': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a lifetime Paul would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum recalls.

"But he just loved it."

Alan Hunter recounts how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a child.

"His dedication was constant," he notes. "He competed every night after school."

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a local club to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the transition from table top snooker with remarkable ease.

His raw skill would be developed by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now former establishment in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: A Star is Born

With his family's urging to do his homework often being ignored as practice took priority, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his initial major win, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the lineup featuring elite players only, Hunter won a trio of times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Cheeky Charm': His Enduring Personality

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never faded.

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

"When encountering him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina adds. "Paul was fun. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "witty, generous" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his easy charm, youthful appearance and honest interview style, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new millennium.

No wonder then, that he was christened 'The Snooker World's Beckham'.

Courage in Crisis: A Fight Against Cancer

In that year, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple anecdotes from across the professional tour highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to honor obligations to public appearances and promotional work, all while enduring treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a standing ovation at The famous Sheffield venue when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in autumn 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in local sports centers 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 initiative was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas plummeted.

"The aim remained for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one official said.

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

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

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Historic matches of their son's matches online help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

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

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

Although he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's top honor is ingrained in the sport's history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, begins later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.