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Life

21st Jan 2016

Teen Pens Inspiring “Guide To Happiness” After Discovering She Had Just Days To Live

The list was written just days before she passed away.

Megan Cassidy

From the mouths of babes.

When eighteen-year-old Jess Fairclough received news that she had just days to live after a year-long battle with a rare form of cancer, she didn’t wallow.

Instead, she put pen to paper and jotted down a list of “Things that are important right now” in a bid to describe what would make her happy before she died and to decipher the meaning of life.

Spotted on The Metro, Jess’ list included spending time with family, filling in her journal, filming, and thinking positively.

She wrote:

“These make up being happy and I believe that is the secret to life. To be happy and to make stuff and to be as good to each other as possible.”

Jess was studying A-levels at Belvedere Academy in south Liverpool when she got her sudden diagnosis, and died less than a year later.

Her guide to happiness has inspired her friends and family to fundraise in her name for CLIC Sargent, the UK’s leading charity for children and young people.