Stephen Sutton Honoured With Special Achievement Award

A host of celebrities paid tribute to teenage fundraiser and Fixer Stephen Sutton tonight at the National Lottery Awards, where he was honoured with a posthumous Special Achievement Award for his inspirational charity work.

Stephen, who lost his three-and-a-half year battle with cancer in May, was recognised for his National Good Gestures Day campaign with Lottery-funded charity Fixers.

Comedian Jason Manford narrated a poignant tribute with never before seen footage of Stephen telling his story and outlining his idea for a national day dedicated to spreading kindness and positivity.
The Special Achievement Award, which recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to society with the help of Lottery funding, was presented by Awards host John Barrowman to Stephen’s mum Jane Sutton and brother Chris.

Jane said: “Stephen touched the hearts of so many people and was such an inspiration. He wanted to be remembered for his passion for life and the Good Gestures day is the perfect legacy.”

The first Good Gestures Day was organised by Stephen in November 2013 and involved 30 young people giving out handshakes, high-fives, hugs and fist bumps to random passers-by in Birmingham. He went on to organise a National Good Gestures Day in May this year involving 300 people across 10 cities.

Stephen was one of 13,000 of ‘Fixers’ – young people who use their own experiences in life to ‘fix’ or change the future for themselves and others.

When he found out he was terminally ill, Stephen created a bucket list of things he would like to do, such as crowd surfing and skydiving. He won the heart of the nation and raised more than £4m for the Teenage Cancer Trust as he completed items on the list and shared updates on social media.

Fixers also won the Best Voluntary/Charity project at this year’s National Lottery Awards, which celebrate the life changing work of Lottery-funded projects across all sections of society.

There are seven categories in the Awards reflecting the various areas of Lottery funding: Arts, Education, Environment, Health, Heritage, Sport and Voluntary/Charity.

The winning projects collected their trophies from presenters Jade Jagger, Chris Packham, John Torode, Laura Main, Larry Lamb, Tinchy Strider and Ade Adepitan.

Pixie Lott and Ella Henderson performed their new singles and Brian McFadden’s wife Vogue Williams DJ’d at the after party for celebrity guests including Gemma Atkinson, Scott Mills, Liz McClarnon, Steph Waring, Scott Mills and the stars of Strictly Come Dancing.

The Awards ceremony will be broadcast in a BBC One show, The National Lottery Stars, at 10.45pm on Friday 19 September.

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