'Paul was fun': Honoring snooker's lost great a score of years on.

All the Leeds-born talent truly desired to do was practice the game.

A love for the game, developed at the very young age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his parents' coffee table in the city of Leeds, would culminate in a pro playing days that saw him claim six major trophies in half a dozen years.

This year marks a score of years since the beloved Hunter passed away from cancer, just days before to his 28th birthday.

But notwithstanding the tragic departure of a once-in-a-generation player that transcended the game he loved, his legacy and impact on the sport and those who followed his career persist as vibrant now.

'His passion was clear': Early Beginnings

"We could not have predicted in a lifetime the boy would become a career sportsman," Kristina Hunter recalls.

"However he just adored it."

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

"He was relentless," he adds. "He would play every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the transition from home play with aplomb.

His raw skill would be coached by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now closed venue in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his parents' pleas to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, 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 still-teenage son had won his maior professional trophy, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the presence of exclusively the best, Hunter won three times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': A Legacy of Character

But for all his achievements in competition, away from the game Hunter's humble charm never left him.

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"If you met him you'd like him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "never the first to depart from the party".

With his natural likability, handsome features and honest interview style, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the modern era.

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

Facing Adversity: His Final Years

In 2005, a year that should have marked the peak of his powers, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple accounts from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary dedication to keep promises to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The Crucible Theatre when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in the mid-2000s, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its cherished personalities.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Foundation for the Future: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in community venues across the UK.

The foundation he inspired, set up before his death, would provide accessible training to children all over the country.

The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas plummeted.

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

The Foundation helped establish the basis for a huge 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 chairman in the sport stated.

Forever in Memory: Two Decades On

Historic matches of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "connected to him".

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

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

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have secured snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's history.

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 character, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.