Thank you for taking the time to visit Charlie's JustGiving page.

In memory of a wonderful son. Our loving son finally lost his battle with Lupus on the evening of the 23rd December 2014.

Eulogy for Charlie -  5/1/2015

As you can see from the Order of Service I originally asked The Reverend Stephen Nunn to deliver the eulogy. I didn’t think I could handle it. I hate public speaking at the best of times.

Kammella had a small private service for Charlie yesterday and while waiting for the proceedings to begin I’d asked her if she was going to be OK delivering her reading. She said Charlie had been so brave throughout the last 8 months the least she could do is pluck up the courage to say a few words that would only take 5 minutes.

She was right. Consequently last night I threw away the notes I was going to give Stephen, and now I’d like to deliver the eulogy myself.

Thank you to everyone who’s been able to attend.

These are a few words in celebration of the life of Charlie, a loving son and a very special brother. I think his best friend was his brother Max. Although 5 years apart, Max has always thought he’s 5 years older, so they were always on a perfect par.

From their earlier years playing in the garden on a zip wire or tearing around in an electric jeep, through to messing around in a swimming pool, they always did it together. And after playing hard all day they’d hunker down for an evening on the PS3 or whatever game Charlie had discovered on his laptop that week. Charlie was always the caring, fun loving elder brother who carefully looked out for his younger sibling.

We don’t come from ‘sporty stock’ but Charlie was a good swimmer, so the swimming gala’s at school was always a must. I remember with pride Charlie taking an embarrassing relay team from a dismal 4 place to a ‘near miss’ second in 2 lengths. If only he’d swum the whole race himself he would have wiped the other teams!

Most recently his passions had evolved into full blown heavy duty gaming with a laptop to match. When he announced he wanted a career in gaming I groaned saying the competition was far too fierce. He responded with the fact that he’d taken on board some of my earlier career advice to him; "For god’s sake find a job you’ll enjoy. You’re going to spend so much time doing it, you need to make it fun”. Being in recruitment I still spend a lot of my time talking to people who hate their jobs. As such, I couldn’t argue with him.

So, when he became ill, Charlie was already accepted into Queen Mary University to study Information Technology with the aim of specialising in Gaming in the final years. He could have gone for King’s but preferred the Campus culture of Queen Mary. Plus he didn’t have to try as hard on the ‘A’ level results! Smart eh? That was Charlie. Confident enough in his own intelligence to make his own choices, and stand by them. He was methodical, precise and logical. Perfect programmer material!  

Charlie was well travelled. He loved looking at new cultures and was fortunate to have holidayed extensively. He’d even done Concord. But his Thailand holidays were his best. That, and Alton Towers…...

You can’t talk about Charlie without mentioning his love of nature and animals. Nik in my office always reminisces when he first met Charlie. Charlie proudly produced a tic tac box full of earwigs, or was it worms for Nik’s inspection. I can’t recall which. Nik?

Whether it be hotel cats on holidays, strays, or his own collection of cats & dogs over the years, he’s adored them all.  He cleverly negotiated a new kitten last summer as a going home from hospital incentive. Unfortunately he only spent a few weeks with her in the autumn, but the joy she brought him in those final weeks was priceless.

It turns out Charlie was one of the bravest persons I’ve known. I’ve been stunned by his bravery these last 8 months. I won’t go into details, but I think I would have given up after the first month. But he battled on, and on, and on…..

I’m extremely proud of Charlie. In the face of painful procedures and continual discomfort he always retained his sense of humour, dignity and good manners. It’s not many people that still say thank you having had a massive needle stuck in their arm! As for me, I’d just faint.

We’re devastated to have lost Charlie after 18 years. He was a charming, intelligent, thoughtful young man with a rich future in front of him. He leaves behind some lovely memories that so many people will cherish for a very long time to come.

Good bye Charlie. I love you.  

Thank you to everyone who has donated. No amount can ever bring Charlie back, but it will help make a big difference to fellow Lupus sufferers.

Charlie received fantastic care and support whilst at St Thomas' and donations to their Lupus Trust would be a very much appreciated. Lupus is now recognised as an important and common illness of modern times. It is a disease in which the immune system goes 'wrong', becomes overactive. It can affect any organ of the body.

More information on the amazing work St Thomas' do can be found here: www.lupus.org.uk