Just seven days before he was due to give a speech to his school at the end of term, 18-year-old Jake Bailey was told he had terminal cancer and only had three weeks to live.

And yet, given day-release from an aggressive course of chemotherapy, the brilliant young man, by now wheelchair-bound, still managed to make his scheduled appearance at the Christchurch Boys’ High School speech day.

The wonderful 20-minute talk that followed - and the extraordinary and uplifting reaction of his friends and classmates - has now been viewed hundreds of thousands of times around the world. It’s not difficult to see why.