With only months to live, Melbourne teenager Shaun Wilson-Miller recorded a message to his friends and family, titled “My Final Goodbye”, in which he urged those closest to him, to live their lives to the fullest and to look after his Dad when he was gone.
The 17-year-old secretly recorded the clip in his bedroom late at night and it was intended just for his Facebook friends, but a technical glitch meant he had to upload it to YouTube.
The heartbreaking, but inspirational video has now amassed 1.4 million hits from across the globe. Wilson-Miller decided to film the clip upon learning that his body had rejected his second heart transplant.
“Yes, it’s love,” he said. “We’ve been going out for 2 1/2 weeks, but we’ve been friends for seven years.
“The hardest thing for me is leaving her, knowing that I won’t get to marry her. To have kids together. To grow old together. That is what makes me sad.”
But despite his heartbreak at leaving his young love and his family and friends behind, Wilson-Miller has remained surprisingly upbeat, even in the face of adversity.
“I want to enjoy my life,” he says.
“The way I look at it is I didn’t get to decide this. These are the cards I’ve been dealt. I just have to roll with the punches.
“I have had two heart transplants, had a stent put in, and an aneurism. I have had 10 more years than I should have because of that. I want to go out with a bang.”
Here is the video that has touched millions….
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAaEw_EB7Ws']
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