'He was a joy': Reflecting on snooker's lost great a score of years on.

Everything Paul Hunter always wished to do was practice the game.

A competitive passion, caught at the very young age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his home's central table in his Leeds home, would result in a life on the tour that saw him win six major trophies in a six-year span.

Now marks two decades since the beloved Hunter succumbed to cancer, mere days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But in spite of the passing of a phenomenal skill that went beyond the pastime he cherished, his influence and memory on snooker and those who followed his career endure as vibrant now.

'He just loved it': The Formative Years

"We could not have predicted in a million years Paul would become a career sportsman," his mother says.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

His dad remembers how his son "cared little for anything else" except for snooker as a young boy.

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

After persistently asking his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on professional-standard tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the leap from table top snooker with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now closed venue in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory

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

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

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the involvement of elite players only, Hunter was victorious three times, in the early 2000s.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never left him.

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

"Upon meeting him you'd take to him," Kristina continues. "Paul was fun. He'd make you comfortable."

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

With his easy charm, handsome features and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the modern era.

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

Courage in Crisis: His Final Years

In that year, a year that should have signaled the height of his career, Hunter was diagnosed with cancer and would later undergo aggressive treatment.

Multiple stories from across the sporting world speak of the man's extraordinary willingness to keep promises to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a tumultuous reception at The World Championship arena when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

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

"The pain is immense," 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 palaces and castles but in local sports centers across the UK.

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

The initiative was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas plummeted.

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

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

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

Always Remembered: Two Decades On

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

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she continues. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be recalled."

Although he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, commences later this month. The winner will lift the memorial cup.

But for all his accomplishments, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.