'Paul was fun': Reflecting on the game's lost great a score of years on.

All Paul Hunter truly desired to do was practice the game.

A competitive passion, caught at the tender age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his parents' coffee table in Leeds, would culminate in a professional career that saw him win six significant titles in half a dozen years.

The present year marks a score of years since the beloved Hunter died from cancer, mere days prior to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But despite the passing of a phenomenal skill that transcended the sport he adored, his influence and memory on the game and those who knew him persist as strong as ever.

'The game was his life': A Childhood Obsession

"It was impossible to foresee in a lifetime Paul would become a career sportsman," Kristina Hunter says.

"Yet he just adored it."

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

"He was relentless," he notes. "He competed every night after school."

After successfully badgering 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 transition from home play with aplomb.

His raw skill would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from neighbouring Bradford, at a now former establishment in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Quick Success: A Star is Born

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

It paid off in spades. Within a short period, their young son had won his first ranking title, the 1998 Welsh Open.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the lineup featuring exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious three times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Cheeky Charm': His Enduring Personality

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

"His demeanor was excellent did Paul," Alan says. "He got on with everybody."

"If you met him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "amazing, young cheeky beautiful soul" who was "humorous, caring" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his easy charm, youthful appearance and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his considerable talent, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: His Final Years

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

Multiple anecdotes from across the professional tour attest to the man's extraordinary commitment to fulfill commitments to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while enduring treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter kept playing through the illness and received a standing ovation at The Crucible Theatre when he turned out for the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in October 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to lose a child."

A Lasting Impact: Giving Back

Hunter's true legacy would be felt not in high society but in local sports centers across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide free snooker sessions to youths all over the country.

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

"The aim remained for a scheme to help get kids off the street," one organizer said.

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

Forever in Memory: Two Decades On

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

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

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she concludes. "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 common opinion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's ultimate trophy is etched into the sport's folklore.

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 personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is always remembered.