'He brought laughter': Remembering snooker's departed star 20 years on.

All Paul Hunter truly desired to do was practice the game.

A love for the game, caught at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in Leeds, would culminate in a professional career that saw him win half a dozen major wins in six years.

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

But notwithstanding the tragic departure of a generational talent that transcended the game he loved, his enduring mark on snooker and those who were close to him remain as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a million years Paul would become a career sportsman," his mother states.

"Yet he just loved it."

Alan Hunter remembers how his son "showed no interest in anything else" besides 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 nearby hall to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the transition from home play with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be developed by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now defunct club in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: From Teenager to Champion

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 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 late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the lineup featuring exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious on three occasions, in the early 2000s.

'Paul was fun': The Man Behind the Cue

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

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody."

"When encountering him you'd take to him," Kristina continues. "He brought joy. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "witty, generous" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his natural likability, youthful appearance and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new millennium.

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

Facing Adversity: Illness and Resilience

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

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world highlight the man's extraordinary dedication to fulfill commitments to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The World Championship arena when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he died in the mid-2000s, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

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

An Enduring Legacy: Giving Back

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in palaces and castles but in local sports centers across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to youths all over the country.

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

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

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

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

Never Forgotten: A Lasting Presence

Archive videos of their son's matches via the internet 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 concludes. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be mentioned at all."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion 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 forever linked, starts later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

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