1News presenter Melissa Stokes speaks to Jake Bailey — the former head student who delivered a speech about his cancer at a prizegiving in 2015 — about how he's going today.
My boys were four and two when I watched Jake Bailey's speech online, like millions of others.
I remember thinking a lot about his mum. Somewhat naively I'd thought once your child hit 18, you might feel like your parenting duties were almost complete. What a dork!
Then suddenly, just as they are about to take flight — a cancer diagnosis that doctors say will kill you in weeks, if left untreated.
That was Jake's reality. A very aggressive form of cancer, Burkitt's non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He was 18 and a week away from delivering the Head Monitor speech at Christchurch Boys' High's prizegiving in 2015.
"None of us get out of life alive so be gallant, be great, be gracious, and be grateful of the opportunities you have.
"I don't know where it goes from here, for any of us, for me, for you, but I wish you the very best on your journey and thank you for being part of mine."
Those are a couple of lines from Jake's speech, delivered from his wheelchair. Eighteen minutes that visibly took it out of him. He was wheeled off stage into an uncertain future. But his speech hit the internet and at last count had been viewed more than 50 million times.
A quick Google search showed I'm not the only one who's wondered how Jake's going.
"Jake Bailey died" is the first search option to come up. So, I'm thrilled to say, Jake is very much still with us.
"My health now is completely perfect and I'm incredibly fortunate to be able to say that. With my cancer, it was a five-year time frame of remission until it was cured, and I reached that period about two years ago now — so I'm fully cured of cancer."
In this strange old universe of ours, I interviewed Jake on the phone at my parents' place as a Hospice nurse was talking to mum, who was in her last few weeks living with cancer.
It was joyful to talk to someone who'd lived through this terrible disease, was out the other side and thriving.
"I'm certainly fitter and healthier than I've ever been before. I do endurance sport now and test my body and push it to its limits," he said.
"I've done the Coast to Coast twice, I've raced two ultra marathons in the last two years and I did a 1400 kilometre bike ride to raise money for cancer research. So my body, it gave me a bit of a hiding when I was 18, so I'm getting back at it now."
It's now eight years since he made his speech.
"It's funny, I look back at that speech as certainly a really integral part of who I am — and it's undeniable, that experience of going through the cancer and everything which came from that had a major role in shaping who I am today — and yet at the same time, I'm grateful I've got a bit of distance now," he said.
"If there was one thing that stands out about the speech, looking back on it now, it's the incredible support I felt from my school and from the school community. The haka at the end of the speech was one of the most powerful things I've ever experienced."
The 25-year-old is now using his experience to teach resilience to kids; what it is and how to use it.
He's travelling the world and has so far presented his story to more than 80,000 people. This year he attended a Commonwealth Conference, recognised as a promising emerging leader.
Jake told me he'd hate to give the impression his story is unique or uncommon but he's pleased he can try to make a difference.
"The common thread throughout my story is that I've just been really lucky," he said.
"That starts with being born in a country where there is access to treatment for my cancer, being lucky to be treated by such an amazing medical team... [I've] been lucky to have what felt like the support of the whole nation behind me during my battle with cancer, through to now being really lucky to be able to share my story and give back in a sense to help other people through that story.
"I just feel incredibly grateful for everything I've been given."
Jake was worried about the number of times he used the word "grateful" in our interview, but you get the sense the teen who battled to stay alive is determined to make the most of life.
"I'm so happy, I feel incredibly happy, fortunate and grateful."
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