Final thumbs up: Stephen’s farewell gesture to friends and supporters (Picture: News Team)

A teenage cancer sufferer has told supporters he is ‘hanging in there’, as donations to flood to his JustGiving page hit £1million.

Stephen Sutton, 19, gave his ‘final thumbs-up’ yesterday morning, saying: ‘I’ve done well to blag things as well as I have up till now, but unfortunately I think this is just one hurdle too far.’

In a moving post on his Facebook page, Stephen’s story, he said it was a ‘shame the end has come so suddenly’ but that ‘life has been good’.

It's a final thumbs up from me! I've done well to blag things as well as I have up till now, but unfortunately I think… Posted by Stephen's story on Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The post, which included a link to his Teenage Cancer Trust JustGiving page, was widely shared online, with celebrities including Piers Morgan and Jason Manford pledging their support.




This morning donations were flooding in at a rate of over £25,000 an hour, hitting the magic £1million mark just after 11am.

Stephen has now reached his £1million target (Picture: JustGiving)

Comedian Jason Manford, who had publicised the fundraising effort, confirmed Stephen was aware he’d hit the landmark target.

Last night he thanked his supporters for their well-wishes, telling his followers on Twitter he was ‘hanging in there’.

Perked up quite a bit since earlier. Still here, still fighting, still very weak, but still smiling :) — Stephen's Story (@_StephensStory) April 22, 2014

Truly humbled by all the support, I am following it as best as I can an it is all hugely appreciated — Stephen's Story (@_StephensStory) April 22, 2014

Hanging in here as best I can :) — Stephen's Story (@_StephensStory) April 22, 2014

Stephen was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2010 aged 15. A year after having the tumour removed his cancer returned, and at the age of 18 he was told his cancer was terminal.

He then compiled a bucket list of 46 tasks that he wanted to complete before his death.

Bucket list: Stephen Sutton gave a speech at Downing Street in July last year (Picture: NTI)

He has since managed to tick off 35 of those, including hugging an elephant, crowd-surfing in a rubber dinghy and playing the drums in front of 90,000 people at a Wembley cup final.

Stephen also aimed to raise £10,000, but soon surpassed this. After reaching £572,000 in just over a year, earlier this month Stephen announced his intention to increase his target to £1million.

Celebrity support: Stephen Sutton with Jimmy Carr (Picture: NTI)