'Paul was fun': Honoring the sport's taken talent a score of years on.

Everything the young snooker player ever wanted to do was compete on the baize.

A competitive passion, developed 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 win six significant titles in six years.

This year marks a score of years since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, just days before to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the passing of a phenomenal skill that transcended the pastime he cherished, his legacy and impact on the game and those who followed his career endure as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': A Childhood Obsession

"We'd never have known in a million years our son would become a career sportsman," Hunter's mum recalls.

"But he just adored it."

His dad remembers how his son "wasn't bothered about anything else" besides snooker as a young boy.

"He was relentless," he says. "He would play 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 young Hunter made the transition from home play with aplomb.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now defunct club in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: A Star is Born

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as the game dominated, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully dedicate himself to carving out a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his initial major win, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious on three occasions, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': The Man Behind the Cue

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

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

"Upon meeting him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina states. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "witty, generous" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his effortless appeal, youthful appearance and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new 21st Century.

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

A Brave Battle: Illness and Resilience

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

Multiple stories from across the snooker circuit attest to the man's extraordinary commitment to keep promises to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while enduring treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter played on through the illness and received a standing ovation at The famous Sheffield venue when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

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

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to go through that pain."

An Enduring Legacy: Giving Back

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

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to children all over the country.

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas dropped significantly.

"The idea was for a program to help offer a constructive activity," one official said.

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a major coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children all over the world.

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

Always Remembered: 20 Years Later

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

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul at any moment," Kristina says. "It's a comfort!"

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she concludes. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled."

While he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is a part of the sport's folklore.

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

But for all his accomplishments, 20 years after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.