'Paul was fun': Remembering snooker's departed star two decades on.

Everything the young snooker player ever wanted to do was play snooker.

A sporting bug, sparked at the very young age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his family's living room table in Leeds, would culminate in a life on the tour that saw him secure six major trophies in six years.

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

But in spite of the tragic departure of a once-in-a-generation player that went beyond the game he loved, his enduring mark on the sport and those who followed his career endure as strong as ever.

'He just loved it': Early Beginnings

"We could not have predicted in a million years Paul would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum says.

"However he just loved it."

Alan Hunter remembers how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" other than snooker as a child.

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

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a local club to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the transition from home play with remarkable ease.

His raw skill would be nurtured by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now defunct club in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as practice took priority, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully focus on forging a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within a short period, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the involvement of only the top competitors, Hunter triumphed on three occasions, in the early 2000s.

'Paul was fun': His Enduring Personality

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

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

"If you met him you'd like him," Kristina states. "Paul was fun. 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 "humorous, caring" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his easy charm, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new 21st Century.

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

Courage in Crisis: His Final Years

In that year, a year that should have signaled the height of his career, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the sporting world highlight the man's extraordinary willingness to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The famous Sheffield venue when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in autumn 2006, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to go through that pain."

A Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in royal circles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to children all over the country.

The program was so successful that, according to reports, local youth crime rates in some areas plummeted.

"The aim remained for a program to help get kids off the street," one coach said.

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

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

Never Forgotten: A Lasting Presence

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

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul whenever I wish," Kristina says. "It's a comfort!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she concludes. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be mentioned at all."

Although he never won the World Championship, the widespread belief that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, commences later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his achievements, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is always remembered.