'He brought laughter': Honoring the sport's lost great a score of years on.

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

A competitive passion, developed at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would result in a professional career that saw him claim six significant titles in half a dozen years.

The present year marks two decades since the beloved Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday.

But notwithstanding the passing of a generational talent that transcended the sport he adored, his enduring mark on the game and those who followed his career persist as strong as ever.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

"We'd never have known in a lifetime Paul would become a pro on the circuit," Kristina Hunter recalls.

"But he just was passionate about it."

Hunter's father recounts how his son "cared little for anything else" other than snooker as a child.

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a local club to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the leap from home play with remarkable ease.

His raw skill would be nurtured 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 parents' pleas to do his homework often being ignored as training came first, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully concentrate on carving out a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within a short period, their still-teenage son had won his maior professional trophy, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the lineup featuring only the top competitors, Hunter won on three occasions, 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 connected with everybody."

"If you met him you'd take to him," Kristina adds. "Paul was fun. 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 "funny, kind" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and candid way with the press, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the modern era.

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

Facing Adversity: Illness and Resilience

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

Multiple stories from across the snooker circuit attest to the man's extraordinary willingness to keep promises to public appearances and promotional work, all while enduring treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter played on through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The famous Sheffield venue when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to go through that pain."

A Lasting Impact: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in palaces and castles but in community venues across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to young people all over the country.

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

"The aim remained for a scheme to help offer a constructive activity," one organizer said.

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

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

Never Forgotten: Two Decades On

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

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

"We like to reminisce about Paul," she adds. "Initially it was painful, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be recalled."

Although he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's ultimate trophy is etched into the sport's legend.

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

But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is never forgotten.