'He brought laughter': Reflecting on snooker's lost great a score of years on.

Everything the Leeds-born talent truly desired to do was play snooker.

A sporting bug, caught at the age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would culminate in a professional career that saw him secure six significant titles in a six-year span.

Now marks two decades since the adored Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his birthday marking 28 years.

But in spite of the loss of a phenomenal skill that rose above the pastime he cherished, his legacy and impact on snooker and those who followed his career endure as strong as ever.

'He just loved it': A Childhood Obsession

"We could not have predicted in a million years Paul would become a pro on the circuit," Hunter's mum says.

"However he just was passionate about it."

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

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a local club to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the leap from miniature games with remarkable ease.

His mercurial talent would be developed by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now defunct club in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: A Star is Born

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework regularly going unheeded as practice took priority, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully concentrate on carving out a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their adolescent had won his maior professional trophy, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the lineup featuring elite players only, Hunter triumphed three times, in consecutive years.

'Paul was fun': His Enduring Personality

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

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"When encountering him you'd like him," Kristina continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you feel at ease."

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

With his effortless appeal, youthful appearance and candid way with the press, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: His Final Years

In 2005, a year that should have marked the zenith of his talent, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple accounts from across the professional tour attest to the man's extraordinary willingness to fulfill commitments to public appearances and promotional work, all while going through treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The famous Sheffield venue when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's close-knit fraternity lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to go through that pain."

An Enduring Legacy: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true impact 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 accessible training to young people all over the country.

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

"The goal was for a scheme to help get kids off the street," one official said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a major 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: 20 Years Later

Historic matches of their son's matches on YouTube help his parents stay "close to him".

"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 continues. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be spoken of."

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 history.

The Masters, the competition with which he is forever linked, begins 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 spirit, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.