In The News

MBE for inspirational teenager Stephen Sutton

MBE for inspirational teenager Stephen Sutton

INSPIRATIONAL teenager Stephen Sutton, who raised millions of pounds for charity before losing his battle against cancer, has been appointed an M.B.E. in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

19-year-old Stephen, who was from from Burntwood in Staffordshire, had been told about the honour, which is in recognition of his fundraising, before he passed away in May. His mother Jane welcomed the announcement and revealed how Stephen had reacted to the news: “Although Stephen continually told all of us that he didn’t do his charity work for recognition, even he acknowledged that to be appointed an M.B.E. was ‘awesome’.”

Stephen had been diagnosed with bowel cancer when he was 15 and was told in 2012 that it was incurable. He used social media to document his battle against the disease and became an inspirational figure to millions by the way he dealt with his illness.

He had originally set out to raise £10,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust but as his story became widely known, and many celebrities had become involved, donations surged and at the time of his death more than £3.2 million had been raised. But the donations continued to pour in and the figure raised is now more than £4.2m (see below).

As well as fundraising, Stephen had also set out to complete a bucket list of things he wanted to do before he died. He managed to complete most of his list which included organising a charity football match, getting a tattoo, crowd surfing in a rubber dingy at a gig, drumming in front of a huge crowd and skydiving for charity. He also broke a world record after he was joined by 553 friends and supporters to break the previous record of the most people to make a heart-shaped hand gesture.

In the hours before his Funeral, thousands of people had filed passed his coffin during a vigil at Lichfield Cathedral. Mourners had given a thumbs-up gesture — which had been used continually by Stephen.

To visit Stephen’s Just Giving page, click here.

To visit Stephen’s Facebook page, click here.

To view an interview in which comedian Jason Manford talks about why he supported Stephen’s fundraising effort, click here.

To see Stephen tell his own story, click here.

To view an excerpt from an interview given by Stephen, click here.

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