'Paul was fun': Honoring the game's departed star 20 years on.

Everything Paul Hunter always wished to do was compete on the baize.

A competitive passion, caught at the very young age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his parents' coffee table in his Leeds home, would result in a professional career that saw him win six major trophies in half a dozen years.

This year marks 20 years since the beloved Hunter died from cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday.

But in spite of the loss of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the game he loved, his legacy and impact on the sport and those who followed his career endure as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': Early Beginnings

"It was impossible to foresee in a million years our son would become a career sportsman," Hunter's mum states.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

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

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

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the leap from table top snooker with aplomb.

His natural ability would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now former establishment in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: From Teenager to Champion

With his parents' pleas to do his homework often being ignored as the game dominated, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully focus on carving out a career in the game.

It was a resounding success. Within five years, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the presence of only the top competitors, Hunter won three times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': A Legacy of Character

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never deserted him.

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

"When encountering him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you feel at ease."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "funny, kind" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his natural likability, boyish good looks 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'.

Facing Adversity: His Final Years

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

Multiple stories from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while going through treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a standing ovation at The Crucible Theatre when he competed in the World Championships that year.

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

"It's awful," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

An Enduring Legacy: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in palaces and castles but in community venues across the UK.

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to young people all over the country.

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

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

The Foundation helped pave the way for a significant coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children globally.

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

Forever in Memory: A Lasting Presence

Archive videos 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 marvellous!"

"We like to reminisce 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 secured snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's history.

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

But for all his successes, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.