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Teen cancer patient tweets 'final thumbs up'

Teen cancer patient tweets 'final thumbs up'

A teenager in the UK who has been documenting his fight against cancer on social media for the past 15 months has posted a farewell to his followers: “It’s a final thumbs up from me!”

19-year-old Stephen Sutton of Burntwood, Staffordshire has been chronicling his battle through his ‘Stephen'sStory’ Facebook blog and Twitter account @-StephensStory, the Daily Mirror reports.

“Generally I am feeling very weak and the slightest bit of movement is leaving me short of breath.

"I am also finding it tiring to speak and even typing this message is hard work.

"Unfortunately I haven’t got much time left, but I just want to reiterate to you all what a great time I’ve had recently.

After finding out he had incurable bowel cancer two years ago, Sutton has raised over $1 million for charity through his social media campaign.

The total has far outstripped his initial goal of £10,000 (A$18,000), which he hopes will increase even more.

But yesterday he posted:

"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 this is just one hurdle too far. It's a shame the end has come so suddenly- there's so many people I haven't got round to properly thank or say goodbye too. Apologies for that.

"There was also so many exciting projects and things I didn't get to see out. Hopefully some will continue and if you want to carry on the fundraising please do.

"All future updates on this page will probably be from a family member. I hopefully may have the energy to write a few tweets I will continue fighting for as long as I can, and whatever happens next I want you all to know I am currently in a good place mentally and at ease with the situation.

"That's it from me. But life has been good. Very good."

"I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of not cramming as much into my life as I should have done," he told the Birmingham Mail.

He later tweeted: “Perked up quite a bit since earlier. Still here, still fighting, still very weak, but still smiling :)”