Queen Presents Stephen Sutton's Mum Jane With His MBE

Queen Presents Stephen Sutton's Mum Jane With His MBE
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Stephen Sutton's mum has collected her son's MBE, six months after he died from cancer.

Stephen, from Burntwood in Staffordshire, was diagnosed with bowel cancer when he was 15. He received treatment, but the tumours spread and he was told the disease was terminal in 2012.

While he was fighting cancer, Stephen started a bucket list of things he wanted to achieve before he died. Top of his list was raising £10,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Thanks to his efforts and the fundraising and donations from the public, the total raised has now topped £5 million, and Stephen has been awarded a posthumous MBE from the Queen.

Stephen's mum Jane collected the MBE for her son today (Tuesday, November 11).

Speaking about the award, Jane said: "I'm feeling so proud to be collecting the award on behalf of Stephen but obviously wish he had been here to collect it himself.

"But it's just so nice that he knew about this award before he passed away, I'm so pleased about that. When he found out about it he did use the word awesome, he thought it was awesome.

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"I remember he was in the hospital bed and he had a big smile on his face. He knew how important this was and how high an honour this was."

The Queen presented Jane with the MBE, and told her she was 'very impressed' with the amount of money raised, adding that she must be very proud of Stephen.

In September, the Teenage Cancer Trust outlined its plans for the money raised by Stephen.

The bulk of the donations, £2.9 million, will go towards the development of five new cancer units specialising in the care of teenage patients, as well as extensive refurbishment of two existing units.

Other funds will be set aside to train new specialist cancer nurses and support workers.

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