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A teen who just found out he has cancer gave this inspiring speech to his class
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EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD Jake Bailey is a final year student at Christchurch Boys’ high school in New Zealand, and was chosen to give a speech at the school’s awards ceremony last Wednesday.
Last week, Bailey was diagnosed with cancer, and doctors told him he would die if he did not receive treatment within three weeks.
Despite this, he was given day release from the hospital to deliver the speech from a wheelchair – he said his words had gained “a whole new spin” since his diagnosis.
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“Be gallant, be great, be gracious and be grateful for the opportunities you have,” he told his emotional classmates.
And he still managed to sneak in a bit of humour, too:
At the end of his address, Bailey’s classmates performed the haka especially for him.
A video of the speech has gone viral all around the world, and been watched hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube:
The school headmaster, Nic Hill, told the New Zealand Herald that despite the aggressive nature of Bailey’s cancer, they were still hopeful:
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