{"entity":{"id":"stephen-sutton","kind":"person","name":"Stephen Sutton","aka":[],"tldr":"Diagnosed with bowel cancer at 15, he turned his final years into a public campaign that raised more than £5 million for the Teenage Cancer Trust before he died at 19.","summary":"Stephen Sutton (1994-2014), from Burntwood, Staffordshire, was diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer at 15, an age at which the disease is rare and easily missed. Rather than pursue his planned medical degree, he wrote a bucket list and shared it online; his final item was to raise £10,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust. A photograph of him giving a thumbs-up from his hospital bed in April 2014 went viral, and donations passed £3 million within days. He died on 14 May 2014 at 19, having been appointed MBE; the total passed £5 million. His campaign put early-onset bowel cancer and the specific needs of teenage and young adult patients in front of a national audience.","asOf":"2026-09-09","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sutton","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sutton"},{"label":"Teenage Cancer Trust","url":"https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/"}],"tags":["hero","patient"],"related":[],"cancers":["colorectal"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":["teenage-cancer-trust"],"pathways":[],"terms":["aya-oncology"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-early-detection","b-patient-voice"],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"role":"Teenage patient whose bucket list raised millions for young people with cancer","specialisms":["Colorectal cancer","Adolescent and young adult cancer","Cancer fundraising"],"profiles":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Sutton"},{"label":"Teenage Cancer Trust","url":"https://www.teenagecancertrust.org/"}],"papers":[]},"route":"/people/stephen-sutton/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/colorectal/"}],"institution":[{"id":"teenage-cancer-trust","kind":"institution","name":"Teenage Cancer Trust","route":"/institutions/teenage-cancer-trust/"}],"term":[{"id":"aya-oncology","kind":"term","name":"Adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology","route":"/terms/aya-oncology/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-patient-voice","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency","route":"/bottlenecks/b-patient-voice/"},{"id":"b-early-detection","kind":"bottleneck","name":"The hardest cancers are found late","route":"/bottlenecks/b-early-detection/"}]}}