'Paul was fun': Honoring the game's lost great a score of years on.

Everything the young snooker player always wished to do was compete on the baize.

A love for the game, developed at the very young age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in Leeds, would lead to a pro playing days that saw him win half a dozen major wins in half a dozen years.

This year marks two decades since the adored Hunter died from cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But in spite of the loss of a phenomenal skill that transcended the pastime he cherished, his influence and memory on the game and those who were close to him endure as powerful today.

'His passion was clear': Early Beginnings

"It was impossible to foresee in a million years the boy would become a pro on the circuit," his mother recalls.

"Yet he just loved it."

Hunter's father remembers how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" other than snooker as a youth.

"His dedication was constant," he says. "He practiced every night after school."

After repeatedly pleading with 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 natural ability would be nurtured by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: A Star is Born

With his mother and father's requests 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 concentrate on building a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within five years, their adolescent had won his maior professional trophy, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the lineup featuring exclusively the best, Hunter won three times, in the early 2000s.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his triumphs in the sport, 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."

"Upon meeting him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

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

With his natural likability, handsome features and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: A Fight Against Cancer

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have signaled the zenith of his talent, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple stories from across the sporting world attest to the man's extraordinary commitment to honor obligations to public appearances and promotional work, 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 played at the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in October 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its best-loved members.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to go through that pain."

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true contribution 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 free snooker sessions to children all over the country.

The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas dropped significantly.

"The idea was for a scheme to help get kids off the street," one organizer said.

The Foundation helped pave the way for a huge 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 leading figure in the sport stated.

Forever in Memory: 20 Years Later

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

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

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

Even though he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's greatest prize is a part of the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, commences 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 brilliant talent on the table, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.