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

All the Leeds-born talent truly desired to do was play snooker.

A sporting bug, sparked at the tender age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his family's living room table in Leeds, would lead to a professional career that saw him claim half a dozen major wins in half a dozen years.

The present year marks 20 years since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, days short to his birthday marking 28 years.

But despite the passing of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the sport he adored, his enduring mark on snooker and those who were close to him endure as strong as ever.

'He just loved it': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a million years our son would become a career sportsman," Kristina Hunter recalls.

"Yet he just loved it."

Hunter's father recounts how his son "cared little for anything else" except for snooker as a child.

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the transition from miniature games with aplomb.

His raw skill would be coached by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: 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 "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully dedicate himself to building a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the involvement of elite players only, Hunter won on three occasions, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'Paul was fun': A Legacy of Character

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

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

"If you met him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina adds. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you feel at ease."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "funny, kind" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his natural likability, youthful appearance and honest interview style, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

No wonder then, that he was christened 'A Sporting Icon'.

Facing Adversity: Illness and Resilience

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have signaled the zenith of his talent, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple accounts from across the snooker circuit highlight the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a standing ovation at The Crucible Theatre when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

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

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Lasting Impact: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to young people all over the country.

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

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

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork 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.

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Archive videos of their son's matches on YouTube help his parents stay "close 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 continues. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be recalled."

While he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's ultimate trophy is a part of the sport's folklore.

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

But for all his successes, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is always remembered.