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

Everything Paul Hunter truly desired to do was compete on the baize.

A competitive passion, developed at the very young age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his parents' coffee table in 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 popular Hunter died from cancer, days short to his 28th birthday.

But notwithstanding the passing of a generational talent that rose above the game he loved, his enduring mark on the sport and those who were close to him remain as vibrant now.

'The game was his life': A Childhood Obsession

"We could not have predicted in a billion years our son would become a pro on the circuit," Hunter's mum states.

"But he just loved it."

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

"He never stopped," he adds. "He competed every night after school."

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a local club to play on full-size tables at the age of eight, the budding player made the jump from table top snooker with great skill.

His mercurial talent would be coached by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now defunct club in the Leeds district of Yeadon.

Quick Success: From Teenager to Champion

With his parents' pleas to do his homework often being ignored as the game dominated, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully concentrate on building a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within half a decade, their young son had won his maior professional trophy, the late-nineties Welsh championship.

Considered one of snooker's toughest events to win because of the presence of exclusively the best, Hunter was victorious a trio of times, in consecutive years.

'A Cheeky Charm': His Enduring Personality

But for all his success on the table, 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."

"Upon meeting him you'd take to him," Kristina continues. "He was enjoyable. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "funny, kind" and "typically the final guest at the party".

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his prodigious ability, Hunter quickly became snooker's poster boy for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: A Fight Against Cancer

In that year, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple anecdotes from across the professional tour attest to the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while enduring treatment.

Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a standing ovation at The World Championship arena when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's tight community lost one of its best-loved members.

"It is tragic," Kristina says. "I wouldn't wish any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

A Foundation for the Future: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in royal circles but in community venues across the UK.

The charity in his name, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to children all over the country.

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

"The idea was for a scheme to help get kids off the street," one coach said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a major coaching programme, which has provided playing opportunities to children globally.

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

Always Remembered: Two Decades On

Historic matches of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".

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

"We don't mind talking about Paul," she adds. "Before it would be tears, but I'd rather somebody talk than him not be spoken of."

While he never won the World Championship, the common opinion that Hunter would have eventually won snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, begins later this month. The winner will lift the Paul Hunter Trophy.

But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's spirit, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is never forgotten.