Don’t waste a second

Today, teenager Stephen Sutton died after his fight with cancer.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Stephen, he was a 19 year old who was diagnosed with incurable colorectal cancer at the young age of 15. He went on create a bucket list of 46 things where one of them was to raise a million pounds for the Teenage Cancer Trust. He ended up raising more than £3.5m!

Stephen used every last second of his young life to promote a message of positivity and to encourage others not to waste a second of their life. He inspired the world and showed others that a life isn’t judged by the number of years you live but what you do with the time you have been given.

Like many others I have also learned from my experiences with cancer that tomorrow is never guaranteed.
I remember saving my money and annual leave to visit New Zealand in 2010 but was then diagnosed with bowel cancer. I had wanted to visit New Zealand for so many years but kept on saying maybe next year…maybe next year. I won’t make that mistake again.

Since starting 101 Things I receive messages from many people who are ill with cancer. Recently two young children that followed me on Facebook have passed away. My good friend Alana (Seb’s mum) was in a terrible car accident recently which has rocked her family. She is slowly making a good recovery. The people I am staying with in Connecticut lost their son in a car accident very recently and have spoken with me about their loss and the sad fact that for many life can be very short. My heart breaks for these people and their families.

People say how lucky I am to be able to do this trip. Believe me I know how lucky I am but not for the reasons many people infer. Money has always been the big talking point of my trip. As you know, I received a bit of negativity to the fact I was able to afford to go on a trip around the world with people saying that I ‘had no idea what it was like for real families with cancer’. I was £2000 in debt when I decided to do this trip, single and on the verge of a breakdown.

I made this trip happen, I saved for this trip, I had amazing friends that fund raised for me and I approached the sponsors to ask if they wanted to be involved. I did this. The only reason I consider myself lucky is because I was given a third chance at life to be able to do this. I was given my health back and even that I fought hard for. My mind and worries tried to ruin me but I kept trying things to make it better.

Many people wait around for life to change for them and for happiness to come and find them. This tends to only happen in the movies.
Get out there and search for that happiness. It’s out there, it just needs to be found.

My reason for telling you this is that it took two bouts of cancer to help me realise that life doesn’t begin tomorrow and it certainly didn’t begin yesterday. Life is happening right now. Do the things that make you happy because what I’ve learned is that you can’t make others happy unless you are happy too. If you have your health then exploit it for all it’s worth. Get out there and meet the love of your life, see the things you want to see and live the life you dream of.

Stephen knew he was going to die and in the end he lived more than anyone I’ve ever heard of. He inspired the world with his positivity, he raised a lot of money for an amazing cause and he confirmed what I’ve only realised to be true over the last 3 and 1/2 years which is that life is short and this is our only shot at it so use every second for all it’s worth.

Lots of love and well wishes to Stephen’s family and a huge thank you to Stephen for being the inspirational person he was and for sharing his positivity and message with the world.

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