Everything Paul Hunter always wished to do was practice the game.
A competitive passion, caught at the age of three with the help of a tiny snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would result in a life on the tour that saw him win half a dozen major wins in a six-year span.
The present year marks 20 years since the popular Hunter died from cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.
But despite the tragic departure of a phenomenal skill that transcended the sport he adored, his legacy and impact on snooker and those who were close to him remain as powerful today.
"We'd never have known in a lifetime our son would become a professional snooker player," Hunter's mum states.
"But he just was passionate about it."
Hunter's father recalls how his son "showed no interest in anything else" except for snooker as a child.
"His dedication was constant," he notes. "He would play every night after school."
After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a community venue to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the leap from table top snooker with aplomb.
His mercurial talent would be nurtured by the 1986 World Champion Joe Johnson, from nearby Bradford, at a now closed venue in the north Leeds suburb of Yeadon.
With his family's urging to do his homework regularly going unheeded as training came first, his parents took the "risk" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully dedicate himself to building a career in the game.
It was a resounding success. Within five years, their adolescent had won his maior professional trophy, the 1998 Welsh Open.
Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the involvement of elite players only, Hunter won on three occasions, in consecutive years.
But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's approachable nature never deserted him.
"He was incredibly composed did Paul," Alan says. "He connected with everybody."
"Upon meeting him you'd like him," Kristina states. "Paul was fun. He'd make you feel at ease."
Hunter's partner Lindsey, with whom he had a daughter, describes him as an "wonderful, youthful, and fun personality" who was "funny, kind" and "always the last to leave the party".
With his easy charm, youthful appearance and straight-talking media manner, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's pin-up for the new millennium.
No wonder then, that he was dubbed 'The Beckham of the Baize'.
In the mid-2000s, a year that should have been the height of his career, Hunter was told he had cancer and would later undergo chemotherapy.
Multiple accounts from across the professional tour speak of the man's extraordinary willingness to honor obligations to exhibitions, events and press interviews, all while undergoing treatment.
Despite difficult symptoms, Hunter continued to compete through the illness and received a standing ovation at The World Championship arena when he turned out for the World Championships that year.
When he passed away in the mid-2000s, snooker's tight community lost one of its most popular brothers.
"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to suffer such a loss."
Hunter's true contribution would be felt not in royal circles 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 scheme was so successful that, according to reports, anti-social behavior in some areas plummeted.
"The goal was for a program to help get kids off the street," one organizer said.
The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a huge 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 chairman in the sport stated.
Classic footage of their son's matches via the internet help his parents stay "in touch with his memory".
"I can watch it and I can watch Paul at any moment," Kristina says. "It's wonderful!"
"We are happy to speak about Paul," she concludes. "At first it was sad, 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 secured snooker's top honor is etched into the sport's history.
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 achievements, two decades after his death it is Paul Hunter's character, as much his dazzling snooker ability, that will ensure he is always remembered.
