'He was a joy': Honoring the game's departed star 20 years on.

Everything the young snooker player always wished to do was play snooker.

A competitive passion, developed at the very young age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in Leeds, would result in a life on the tour that saw him win six significant titles in half a dozen years.

Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter passed away from cancer, mere days prior to his 28th birthday.

But despite the tragic departure of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on the game and those who were close to him persist as powerful today.

'His passion was clear': Early Beginnings

"We'd never have known in a million years the boy would become a career sportsman," Kristina Hunter says.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Alan Hunter recounts how his son "cared little for anything else" other than snooker as a youth.

"His dedication was constant," he notes. "He practiced every night after school."

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the jump from miniature games with great skill.

His natural ability would be developed by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now former establishment in the area of Yeadon.

Rapid Rise: From Teenager to Champion

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework often being ignored as the game dominated, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the mid-teens to fully concentrate on building a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within five years, their adolescent had won his first ranking title, 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 triumphed three times, in consecutive years.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his triumphs in the sport, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never faded.

"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"Upon meeting him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you relaxed."

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

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

Courage in Crisis: His Final Years

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have been the peak of his powers, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the snooker circuit speak of the man's extraordinary willingness to honor obligations to public appearances and promotional work, all while enduring treatment.

Despite gruelling side effects, Hunter kept playing 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 close-knit fraternity lost one of its best-loved members.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

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

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to children all over the country.

The program was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas fell sharply.

"The idea was for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one organizer said.

The Foundation helped pave the way for a significant 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 senior official in the sport stated.

Always Remembered: 20 Years Later

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

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she continues. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be mentioned at all."

Even though he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's ultimate trophy is a part of the sport's folklore.

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