In a world obsessed with celebrity, where the pertness of Kim Kardashian’s rear end is afforded almost as many column inches as the 200 missing school girls abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria, the incredible story of Stephen Sutton has shone out this past week.

There can be few people who haven’t been moved by his unassuming demonstration of what it really means to be inspirational. Stephen was a 19-year-old who was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, one of many hundreds of teenagers who would have been given similar news that year.

The following year, he was told his cancer was incurable; a pretty difficult notion for anyone to come to terms with, let alone someone so young.

I’m sure that Stephen was not the only person to face such difficult news with such bravery but his story picked up momentum through the power of social media and within weeks there were few people accustomed to Facebook who didn’t know of Stephen. His list of 46 things he wanted to do before he died became most well known for his wish, only one month ago, to raise £1m pounds for the teenage cancer trust. Something he has achieved nearly four times over.

One in three people will be affected by cancer, a shocking statistic. It’s a word that is part of our every day vocabulary and I’d be hard pushed to find anyone who hasn’t seen it affect someone close to them.

What I found so incredible about the story of Stephen Sutton was the attitude with which he decided to face his fate.

Here was a boy, still at school, a sporty high achiever who was aiming to study medicine at Cambridge. He had every reason to wallow in self pity, no one would blame him if that was the route he chose.

Instead he chose upbeat positivity. “I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of not cramming as much into my life as I should have done” were his matter-of-fact words.

“When you look at the positives of life, there is so much to enjoy, so much to be excited about.”

Spoken by someone who has only had a 19-year shot at life, that’s remarkable wisdom.

It’s not that his death would have meant any less if he had dropped out of school, had two left feet and struggled with academia. It’s not what he’d achieved which was impressive, it’s how he chose to face the unknown which he had no control over.

I’d wager a bet there were people all over the country last week, on hearing the sad news of Stephen’s death, who reflected on his message.

We get one short life, every day is an opportunity to experience new things. It sounds like a cliché, something you might see pained on a motivational wall plaque. The kind of thing that usually makes me slightly cringe. Sometimes it takes a real person experiencing a real situation to make me think, cliches become cliches for good reason.

On days when the weather is gloomy, there are a mountain of bills to pay and a working day to face, it helps to remind myself that there is always a reason to be positive. I think a wish list is a good way to nudge myself to make the most of my time. I don’t mean a wish list for a 40ft yacht or a eternal youth. Stephen’s list of 46 things included wanting to hug an animal bigger than himself and to go on a lads holiday. When he died last Wednesday, he had ticked off all but four of the list. It may take me a while to compile my list and I’d imagine I will add to it daily and I’d hope for many years to see it through too.

On Thursday, the day after Stephen died, I achieved the first on my wish list and I now live in a house with a bright yellow front door.

It may seem an insignificant wish, but that’s just the thing with life, there’s no need to justify your wishes.

I’m dedicating the door to Stephen for his inspirational positivity.

He has quite spectacularly achieved in making the world a better place and my yellow front door will remind me of that every day.