British cancer charity fundraiser Stephen Sutton dies

19-year-old raised millions for charity

The 19-year-old British cancer charity fundraiser Stephen Sutton died peacefully in his sleep this morning, his mother said on his Facebook page today.

He was readmitted to hospital with breathing difficulties on Sunday.

Stephen, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, was in Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he was being treated for multiple tumours.

Stephen raised more than £3.2 million for charity since being diagnosed with bowel cancer, aged 15, in September 2010.

READ MORE

In a statement posted yesterday on Stephen’s Facebook page, his family reported that his condition has deteriorated over the previous 24 hours due to the re-growth of tumours which are blocking his airway.

The posting stated: “We will let you know of any further developments. Right now however, as a family, we wish for a certain amount of privacy for us to spend what time he has remaining with him.

“We appreciate everyone’s concern, and for all the love and goodwill sent his way, and indeed ours too, we thank you deeply.”

His fund-raising efforts have attracted support from celebrities including Simon Pegg, Russell Brand and Stephen Fry, as well as music mogul Simon Cowell. More than 135,000 individual donations were been.

Donations to the fundraising page, which he set up in January 2013 alongside a blog on Facebook, leaped last month after he posted a picture of himself in hospital with a “goodbye”message. But he made what he described as a miraculous recovery — coughing up a tumour and being discharged from hospital on May 2nd. The teenager was re-admitted to Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital at the weekend after developing breathing difficulties. Commenting on his Facebook page, which had more than 800,000 likes, on Sunday, Mr Sutton wrote: “Unfortunately today I’ve ended up back in hospital. I had some breathing difficulties starting last night and after going to A&E have been admitted back to a ward for monitoring.

“I’ve still got the cough, then quite quickly developed a wheeze in my breathing and breathlessness upon any physical exertion.

“There’s no immediate panic and I’m currently quite stable — I have been put on nebulisers and other meds which are currently helping my symptoms hugely.”

PA