Stephen Sutton

Like you, I was very moved to hear of the untimely death of the 19 year old, Stephen Sutton .What a remarkable young man .Because he was dying and because he was 19 and because he was often in the papers ,I followed him. What he said ,how he was ,how his amazing fund-raising was going etc .Then last Wednesday he died . His Mother said ” My heart is bursting with pride but breaking with pain for my courageous, selfless and inspirational son “. Such beautiful and loving words .

One of the items on Stephen’s Bucket List was to do some public speaking .In January he spoke to 4,000 people at the O2, these are some of the things he said ..I have read them ,re-read them ,typed them,laminated them,put them on my cupboard wall at work .I think they and him are truly inspirational .

Be as positive as possible.

‘what I’ve found is a positive attitude leads to positive outcomes .I am still here and smiling because of the support of others .

Do not feel sorry for yourself.

“I’ve learnt not to feel sorry for myself…so none of you should feel sorry for me as well”

Do not measure life in terms of time,measure it in what you actually achieve.

“I don’t see the point in measuring life in terms of time anymore .I would rather measure it in terms of making a difference…I am here to encourage you to have a similar outlook”.

Use your time as positively and productively as possible

” everyone is given 86,400 seconds at the beginning of the day to do whatever they want with it And at the end of the day you are not given that time back….so that’s why I think it is important to use the time we’ve got as positively and productively as possible.”

Help others in order to help yourself

“What I have found is that the best way to help yourself is to help others Sometimes it is better to give.”

Take nothing for granted.

“I see my first cancer diagnosis as a good thing….a huge kick in the backside,it taught me to take nothing for granted and gave me a motivation for life.

Unfortunately,my later diagnosis means…I am stuck in a position with loads of motivation but not very much time.”

Achieve something, make a Bucket List

“I made a bucket list of the 46 things I wanted to achieve in the near future ..some of those included ,skydiving, hosting a charity dinner party ‘Come Dine with Me’ and getting a tattoo.

Do not take things too seriously

Speaking of the tattoo he got :” Does anyone remember the troll doll with the funky hair? I’ve got one of those tattooed underneath my armpit with my hair doubling up as the troll’s hair .I thought it was pretty creative.But it’s about not taking things too seriously”

Enjoy life.Have a good time-life is for the living

“It’s a shame I’ve had to rely on tragedy to remind me to have a good time, to remind me to do something..it shouldn’t be like that; if we want to get out there and achieve stuff we should go do that…life is for the living .”

Make a difference !

” See people like – you guys have got all the time in the world to make a difference to yourselves, to make a difference to all this…what I can try and do is to give you a bit of my motivation..to go out there and achieve something,to go out there and help others , to go out there and enjoy life ,to make a difference.

And that’s it .”

2 Replies to “Stephen Sutton”

  1. “Enjoy life. Have a good time – life is for the living” – I think that sums up Rosie’s attitude to life. She always wanted to do something new and fun and was ALWAYS laughing. I am so glad that she loved life the way she did.

  2. Yes so am I .I have no regrets about her life. She was happy,fun,kind and daring .She was doing all the stuff she loved doing and she made us all laugh .
    For all that positiveness, sadly ,I still can’t stop feeling she was robbed ..and no-one deserves to be robbed .I’ve given up trying to make sense of it as there is no sense .As my wise old friend says ‘Rachel, there is no logic in this world’ .Now that is sense !

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