18-year-old Jake Bailey, from New Zealand, was given just weeks to live after he was diagnosed with Burkitts non-Hodgkinson lymphoma – an aggressive and fast growing tumour.
But despite doctors telling him that he would not be able to make the speech he had written a week before, Jake defied all the odds and managed to speak so powerfully there was not a dry eye in the room.
Receiving a standing ovation as he was wheeled into Christchurch Boys High School’s auditorium, the New Zealand teenager urged his fellow pupils to “be grateful for the opportunities [they] have".
"We don't know where we might end up, or when we might end up. The future is truly in our hands,” he said.
At the end of the speech his fellow pupils got up and performed the Haka as a gesture of respect and unity for the head boy.
It is quite long, but this is one of the most powerful things you will see all day.
