'He brought laughter': Remembering the game's lost great two decades on.

Everything Paul Hunter always wished to do was play snooker.

A competitive passion, sparked at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a life on the tour that saw him claim six significant titles in six years.

The present year marks a score of years since the beloved Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the loss of a generational talent that rose above the pastime he cherished, his influence and memory on the game and those who knew him remain as strong as ever.

'His passion was clear': The Formative Years

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

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Hunter's father remembers how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" besides snooker as a young boy.

"He was relentless," he adds. "He would play every night after school."

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a local club to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the jump from table top snooker with remarkable ease.

His natural ability would be nurtured by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now defunct club in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Quick Success: A Star is Born

With his parents' pleas to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as the game dominated, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully focus on building a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within five years, their young son had won his maior professional trophy, the Welsh Open of 1998.

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

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

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

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina adds. "Paul was fun. 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 "witty, generous" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his effortless appeal, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: Illness and Resilience

In 2005, 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 sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary willingness to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter played on through the illness and received a standing ovation at The famous Sheffield venue when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its cherished personalities.

"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 legacy would be felt not in high society but in local sports centers across the UK.

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

The program was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas plummeted.

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

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

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

Forever in Memory: Two Decades On

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

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she continues. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be mentioned at all."

While he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's legend.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, commences later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his achievements, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.