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

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

A love for the game, caught at the age of three with the help of a miniature snooker set on his family's living room table in the city of Leeds, would result in a life on the tour that saw him win six major trophies in a six-year span.

Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter died from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But notwithstanding the tragic departure of a once-in-a-generation player that rose above the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on the sport and those who knew him endure as vibrant now.

'His passion was clear': A Childhood Obsession

"It was impossible to foresee in a billion years Paul would become a career sportsman," his mother states.

"However he just loved it."

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

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

After successfully badgering his dad to take him to a community venue to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the young Hunter made the jump from home play with great skill.

His natural ability would be developed by the former world title holder Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now former establishment in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.

Metoric Ascent: The Path to Glory

With his family's urging to do his homework regularly going unheeded as practice took priority, his parents took the "chance" of taking Hunter out of school at the fourteen years old to fully concentrate on forging a career in the game.

It paid off in spades. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his initial major win, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the presence of elite players only, Hunter triumphed three times, in the early 2000s.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

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

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody."

"Upon meeting him you'd take to him," Kristina states. "He brought joy. He'd make you relaxed."

Hunter's wife Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "humorous, caring" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his effortless appeal, handsome features and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the new millennium.

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

Courage in Crisis: A Fight Against Cancer

In 2005, a year that should have marked the peak of his powers, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.

Multiple accounts from across the sporting world attest to the man's extraordinary dedication to fulfill commitments to public appearances and promotional work, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a standing ovation at The famous Sheffield venue when he competed in the World Championships that year.

When he died in autumn 2006, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.

"It's awful," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."

An Enduring Legacy: Inspiring Youth

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in palaces and castles but in local sports centers across the UK.

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

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

"The aim remained for a platform to help offer a constructive activity," one official said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a significant coaching programme, which has opened up playing opportunities to children all over the world.

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

Always Remembered: A Lasting Presence

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

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul at any moment," 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."

While he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have secured snooker's ultimate trophy is etched into the sport's legend.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most associated, begins later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

But for all his successes, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.