'He brought laughter': Reflecting on snooker's taken talent a score of years on.

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

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

The present year marks 20 years since the beloved Hunter passed away from cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the passing of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the sport he adored, his influence and memory on the sport and those who were close to him endure as strong as ever.

'His passion was clear': Early Beginnings

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

"Yet he just loved it."

Hunter's father recalls how his son "showed no interest in anything else" other than snooker as a youth.

"He never stopped," he says. "He competed every night after school."

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a community venue to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the jump from home play with aplomb.

His mercurial talent would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now closed venue in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: A Star is Born

With his family's urging to do his homework often being ignored as practice took priority, 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 was a resounding success. Within five years, their adolescent had won his initial major win, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

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

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never faded.

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

"If you met him you'd take to him," Kristina adds. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

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

With his natural likability, boyish good looks 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 nicknamed 'A Sporting Icon'.

Courage in Crisis: Illness and Resilience

In 2005, a year that should have been the peak of his powers, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to public appearances and promotional work, all while going through treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away 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 lose a child."

A Lasting Impact: Inspiring Youth

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

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to youths 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 program to help get kids off the street," one organizer said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a major coaching programme, which has extended 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 watch it and I can watch Paul anytime," Kristina says. "It's wonderful!"

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled."

Although 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 legend.

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

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