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

All Paul Hunter always wished to do was practice the game.

A competitive passion, sparked at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would lead to a pro playing days that saw him secure six major trophies in a six-year span.

Now marks a score of years since the adored Hunter passed away from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the loss of a once-in-a-generation player that transcended the game he loved, his legacy and impact on the game and those who knew him 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," his mother says.

"Yet he just adored it."

His dad remembers how his son "cared little for anything else" except for snooker as a young boy.

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

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the transition from home play with remarkable ease.

His mercurial talent would be developed by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now former establishment in the area of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: A Star is Born

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework often being ignored as training came first, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, their young 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 only the top competitors, Hunter was victorious on three occasions, in the early 2000s.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

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

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"Upon meeting him you'd take to him," Kristina continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had a child, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "witty, generous" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his easy charm, boyish good looks and candid way with the press, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new millennium.

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

Facing Adversity: A Fight Against Cancer

In 2005, a year that should have been the peak of his powers, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the snooker circuit highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while going through treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a standing ovation at The World Championship arena when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

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

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

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in royal circles but in community venues across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to youths all over the country.

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas dropped significantly.

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

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a major coaching programme, which has provided 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.

Never Forgotten: 20 Years Later

Archive videos of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "connected to him".

"I can watch it and I can watch Paul anytime," Kristina says. "It's a comfort!"

"We like to reminisce 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 highly probable notion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's top honor is ingrained in the sport's history.

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

But for all his achievements, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.