'He brought laughter': Honoring the sport's departed star a score of years on.

All the Leeds-born talent ever wanted to do was practice the game.

A love for the game, sparked at the very young age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his home's central table in the city of Leeds, would lead to a professional career that saw him claim half a dozen major wins in half a dozen years.

This year marks 20 years since the beloved Hunter died from cancer, just days before to his birthday marking 28 years.

But despite the loss of a generational talent that rose above the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on the game and those who followed his career endure as vibrant now.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

"We'd never have known in a billion years Paul would become a career sportsman," Hunter's mum states.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Alan Hunter recalls how his son "showed no interest in anything else" except for snooker as a young boy.

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

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the jump from miniature games with great skill.

His raw skill would be coached by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now defunct club in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: A Star is Born

With his parents' pleas 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 mid-teens to fully concentrate on building a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within half a decade, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's hardest tournaments to win because of the presence of elite players only, Hunter won three times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Cheeky Charm': The Man Behind the Cue

But for all his triumphs in the sport, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature 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 continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's wife 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 easy charm, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new 21st Century.

No wonder then, that he was nicknamed 'The Snooker World's Beckham'.

A Brave Battle: A Fight Against Cancer

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have signaled the peak of his powers, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the sporting world attest to the man's extraordinary commitment to fulfill commitments to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while going through treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter kept playing 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 tight community lost one of its best-loved members.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "It is a terrible thing for any mum and dad to go through that pain."

A Foundation for the Future: The Paul Hunter Foundation

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in royal circles but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

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

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

"The idea was for a scheme to help provide a positive outlet," one coach said.

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

"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

Classic footage of their son's matches online help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

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

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody mention him than him not be recalled."

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 ingrained in the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, 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 personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.