Stephen Sutton MBE

Who was Stephen Sutton? 

Stephen Sutton was an exceptional young man who made a huge impact as a Teenage Cancer Trust ambassador and fundraiser. Stephen was first diagnosed with colorectal cancer at the age of 15. He was supported throughout his cancer experience by Teenage Cancer Trust and received his treatment in our three units in Birmingham.

Despite an incurable cancer diagnosis, Stephen decided to measure his life in the difference he could make. Stephen remained positive and determined to make a difference, inspiring tens of thousands of supporters across the globe, right up until his death in May 2014. 

In 2013 he decided to make a bucket list of things he wanted to achieve via his Facebook page, with a goal of raising £10,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust at number one on his list. He later increased this to £500,000 and then updated it to £1 million. To date, Stephen’s story has raised over raised over £6 million for young people facing cancer. 

Now, Stephen’s mum, Jane, is taking on a new project to continue fundraising for Teenage Cancer Trust. Jane is hoping to raise £300,000 which could fund an additional 10,000 hours of care and support. To launch her next fundraising goal she will be taking on 16 different challenges, one for each of the areas in which our 28 units are located.

She said “I want all young people diagnosed with cancer and starting out to be able to access the support and the services Teenage Cancer Trust offer. It’s so important to keep a young person’s life on track and try and maintain normality – you certainly don’t get that if you’re treated on a children’s ward or older person’s ward. It’s concerning to hear about the pressures all cancer services are under and how charities are finding it hard to raise the money they need to keep going. £6million may have been raised in Stephen’s name but it doesn’t stop there – young people haven’t stopped getting cancer in the past ten years!”  

“It’s hard to get your head around the impact Stephen has had on the world – to me he was just Stephen. Losing a child is one of the worst things anyone can go through, but if anything good has come out of it, it’s that he’s made a difference, and that’s what he wanted to do.”   

Thumbs up for Stephen

Stephen’s Story went viral when he posted what he thought was his last “thumbs up” photo from his hospital bed, on 22 April 2014. Already an ambassador and major fundraiser for Teenage Cancer Trust, Stephen captured the public’s imagination in an overwhelming way in the following weeks.

Comedian and long-term Teenage Cancer Trust supporter, Jason Manford, who had met Stephen at the charity’s Royal Albert Hall concert series in March, created the Thumbs Up for Stephen campaign on social media and vowed to take the fundraising to £1 million. Stephen was featured in an amazing array of news outlets both local and global, and supported by a host of celebrities including Stephen Fry, Clare Balding, Gary Lineker, Steve Coogan, Carol Vorderman, Caitlin Moran and even the then Prime Minister, David Cameron MP.

Over 180,000 donations have been made online to Stephen’s JustGiving page and over 150,000 by text message. In addition, Stephen continues to inspire a wide range of fundraising events and activities in his name. One of the biggest of the events is Ride Out For Stephen, a charity motorcycle ride which Stephen attended at the inaugural ride in 2013. There’s always a seat reserved for Stephen on one of the bikes.   

How Jane Sutton is continuing her son’s fundraising legacy

Jane Sutton talked to us about her reflections on Stephen’s life and legacy ten years on, and her plans to take on more challenges to raise money for Teenage Cancer Trust. This is what she had to say about to Stephen’s story.

Stephen’s bucket list 

In January 2013 Stephen wrote a bucket list of 46 things he wanted to do.  He didn’t mention anything to me about it – he just went off to his bedroom to write it –– then he came down and explained what he’d done, and said he’d put the list online already. It all started from there.  

Number one on his bucket list was to raise £10,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust and he reached that within three weeks thanks to the local community rallying around. They were incredible.

He became a bit of a local celebrity in the West Midlands, well known for his positivity and ‘thumbs up’ poses and had coverage in the local paper and TV.  In 12 months, he’d raised £560,000.  A lot of that was raised at the conference he spoke at the O2.  Then he updated his target to £1 million.  

Stephen’s story goes viral

Stephen’s Story went viral when he posted what he thought was his last “thumbs up” photo from his hospital bed, on 22nd April 2014. He really did think that would be his last thumbs up photo. He was so weak and struggling to breathe and the doctors said they would not be resuscitating him if he stopped breathing. 

Although he’d never asked how long he had left to live, he was surprised by how quickly his health was deteriorating and that he hadn’t had a chance to thank everyone and say ‘goodbye’. That was all he wanted to do. 

At his request I took the photo of him, and I helped him type out the Facebook post because he couldn’t do it himself. Nobody could have known what was about to happen. He had his phone with him, and it kept pinging all the time, with people making donations.  

Jason Manford who had met Stephen at the charity’s Royal Albert Hall concert series in March, saw the post and created the Thumbs Up for Stephen campaign on social media, wanting to help Stephen reach his target of £1 million.   Basically, people were taking a photo of themselves doing a ‘thumbs up’ and asking people to ‘text to donate’ to Teenage Cancer Trust.  So many celebs were involved, and David Cameron the then Prime Minister came to visit him in hospital.

When we were in the hospital, we didn’t grasp the full magnitude of what was happening and were in a bubble to some extent – we didn’t really appreciate what  was happening in the outside world as the priority was Stephen’s health.   

Stephen made an unexpected temporary recovery after appearing to cough up one of the tumours blocking his airway, and it was only when he was feeling better, we realised the extent of what was happening with his fundraising. He was totally overwhelmed; it was beyond his wildest dreams.  He knew what a difference that money would make to the charity.  

Lots of people/organisations started asking how they could help with his bucket list. One of these was Guinness World Records. On April 19^th, 2013, Stephen had attempted a Guinness World Record for the longest continuous drumroll which had it been successful would have meant that he could tick off number 34 on his bucket list. To beat the existing record, drumming had to continue for just under 28 hours and it all had to be documented and recorded. Unfortunately, two lots of 10 mins footage was lost so the attempt failed. However, Guinness WR got in touch and suggested he organise a record attempt of the most people doing the heart-shaped gesture, and he broke that record on the 4th May 2014.  

People were travelling from far and wide and when he took part in this World Record attempt, Stephen was in a wheelchair and still quite weak.  So many people were clamouring to see him and meet him, and it was well meaning but a lot to deal with.  At one point he did have to say, ‘please can you take me inside mum’.  

Sadly, on 11^th May 2014 Stephen experienced breathing difficulties and was re-admitted into hospital and he passed away three days later on 14^th May.

The days after he died were a blur.  People were knocking on the door asking for interviews, but my family were there to protect me.  I threw myself into the practicalities of arranging the funeral, which took weeks. The level of public interest dictated this wasn’t going to be a ‘normal’ funeral service. In the end we had a public vigil followed by a private funeral for close family and friends. 

Memories of Stephen

Stephen was quite outgoing, if we walked into a room and didn’t know someone he’d go over and joke around and that would be his way of getting to know them.  But he wasn’t overbearing or arrogant – more of the joker in the pack.  He loved to make people laugh. He knew when to be serious with his studies and his sport, but he also liked having a laugh. He was very bright and wanted to study to be a doctor, after he started treatment that was cemented in his mind.  

People would always say he was so grown up and mature for his age – to have that confidence was special.  Like when he spoke about his experience at the O2 Arena, addressing the AGM of St James’s Place. There were thousands of people there and I remember saying to him beforehand ‘aren’t you worried?’ and he said ‘no, I’m totally fine’.  I’d have been a bag of nerves, but he was completely calm. I think because his time was limited, he thought even if it went wrong, it was better to have done it than not.  

I think that’s one of my proudest memories of Stephen, watching him speak at the O2 Arena. His presentation was incredible. I was in the front row in tears and the standing ovation he got was amazing. People who were there still talk about how incredible Stephen’s presentation was and the impact it had on their own lives. 

I was always the proud mom at school presentation evenings as Stephen always received a certificate for academic excellence or sport. Even though he was having chemotherapy when he sat his exams, he was determined that this wouldn’t stop him. He refused to fill in the paperwork to apply for ‘extenuating circumstances’ and went on to achieve 5 A* and 4 A’s in his GCSE’s. 

After Stephen’s diagnosis of incurable cancer, I was in awe of Stephen’s bravery. He remained positive throughout. His bucket list of 46 quirky things to complete in the time he had left typified Stephen. Activities from raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust to hugging an animal bigger than him, to crowd surfing in a yellow dinghy! He was determined to squeeze every drop of joy out of life. 

Continuing Stephen’s fundraising legacy 

My plan is to do a challenge in all 16 regions of the UK which have Teenage Cancer Trust units.  Stephen had it on his bucket list to hike to each of the units, but he never had the chance, so this is my way of doing it.  

I want all young people diagnosed with cancer to be able to access the support and the services Teenage Cancer Trust offer. It’s so important to keep a young person’s life on track and try and maintain normality – you certainly don’t get that if you’re treated on a children’s ward or older person’s ward.  

It’s concerning to hear about the pressures all cancer services are under and how charities are finding it hard to raise the money they need to keep going. £6 million may have been raised in Stephen’s name but it doesn’t stop there – young people haven’t stopped getting cancer in the past ten years and won’t for the foreseeable future.

It’s hard to get your head around the impact Stephen has had on the world – to me he was just my son Stephen. Losing a child is one of the worst things anyone can go through, but if anything good has come out of it, it’s that he’s made a difference, and that’s what he wanted to do.   

His fundraising has helped so many young people and will continue to do so into the future.  He really did appreciate Teenage Cancer Trust being there for him and he was very aware that not every young person is fortunate enough to receive the charity’s support. Being on the units made Stephen realise that he wasn’t the only young person with cancer and gave him the opportunity to speak to other young people going through what he was going through.  

His friends were fantastic, and all rallied around and were always there for him.  However, Stephen said that they couldn’t understand exactly what he was going through – the only people who could truly understand were other young people going through their own cancer journey.  For Stephen that interaction with people of his own age made a big difference.  

I can remember the first day we went into the unit at Birmingham Children’s Hospital a young lad came up, Josh. He was like ‘oh hello’ and started chatting and they remained friends until Stephen died.   

The friendships he established with other young cancer patients were special. In particular there was a group of five, including Stephen that called themselves ‘the Cancer Crew’.  They met up at Teenage Cancer Trust events but also organised regular get-togethers, especially when celebrating their ‘cancerversaries’.   

Stephen was asked by the charity when the total reached £3 million – is there anything specific you want to spend it on?  He said, ‘just carry on doing what you’re doing,’ he already knew what a difference the money would make.    

The fundraising that I’ve done over the past 10 years since Stephen died is about continuing his legacy – and about following his example to challenge myself to enjoy every moment of life.   

I remember when I turned to Stephen and said, ‘I’m going to run the London marathon for you’ and he said, ‘what?!’ – I remember the look on his face. ‘You don’t even run mum!’.  But in 2015, the year after Stephen died, I completed it, raising money for Teenage Cancer Trust.  In 2018 I ran it as a member of the Wolverhampton Bobsled Team, and I completed it for the third time last year.  I’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, done a wing walk, and had so many other adventures, meeting so many incredible people along the way.  

Stephen’s Story inspired the biggest single fundraiser in Teenage Cancer Trust’s history and the aim since Stephen passed away has been to continue his fundraising legacy. I’m thrilled that we’ve finally managed to reach the milestone figure of £6 million in the 10^th anniversary year since Stephen’s passing.  

I’m incredibly humbled by everyone who continues to follow Stephen’s Story and to everyone who has donated. Stephen showed us how incredibly powerful small positive acts can be when lots of people get involved for a common cause.  

Knowing that this money has already made a significant difference to other young people with cancer and will continue to do so in the future make me happy as this was Stephen’s wish.