A week before he was due to give his final speech at his school's prize-giving ceremony, Christchurch Boys' High School's head boy Jake Bailey was told he had weeks to live. Despite doctors' advice, the 18-year-old did not let his cancer diagnosis stop him from delivering an inspiring and emotional address to his classmates.

"I wrote a speech, and a week before I was due to deliver this speech tonight they said, 'You've got cancer'," he began. "They said, if you don't get any treatment within the next three weeks you're going to die. Then they told me I wouldn't be here tonight to deliver this speech."

Bailey had been diagnosed with Burkitts non-Hodgkinson lymphoma, a form of cancer and one of the fastest growing tumours. He was wheeled out stage to a standing ovation before giving the type of insightful and inspiring advice you don't often hear from a teenager.

The school listened in silence as Bailey read his original speech to a crowd of students and staff.

Jokingly, he pleaded with his classmates, who had been enquiring about his absence the past three weeks, "to stop texting my mum to see where I am" before ending on a more poignant note.

"None of us get out of life alive, so be gallant, be great, be gracious, and be grateful for the opportunities you have. The opportunity to learn from the men who walked before you and those who walk beside you," he told the crowd.

After he finished speaking, some of Bailey's schoolmates performed a Haka, while the visibly moved teenager looked on and quietly mouthed 'thank you' at the end.

You can watch the speech in full, which though 18 minutes long, is well worth the watch: