My little brother beats me at every race. Here’s why I’ll never resent him for it

As I come up to the final stretch of the 5k course, I can see that my little brother, Charlie, has already crossed the finish line.

‘Here we go,’ I think, rolling my eyes and chuckling to myself.

In our family, Saturday mornings are for parkruns and every week he and I battle it out to see who can complete the course in the fastest time. 

As the older sibling you would think I’d have it in the bag, but Charlie, 16, has always been a fighter. He certainly doesn’t make it easy for me. And honestly, I love that.

Seeing him absolutely dominate the other athletes in his age category makes me so proud I could burst because to look at him, you would never know he battled cancer, but he has. And I am so grateful he’s come out victorious. 

I remember the day in 2010 when he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia – a type of cancer that affects the blood – like it was yesterday.

Charlie was just three-years-old and had been complaining of a sore throat for a couple of days.

At first, my parents didn’t think it was anything more than a severe bout of tonsillitis, but after seeing two separate GPs, followed by several nights in hospital, we all began to suspect something bad was going on.

Of course, nothing ever prepares you for a diagnosis like that – it was a complete shock to the whole family, especially my sister and I. I was only 10 at the time myself, so my only understanding was that cancer leads to death. I feared the worst. 

After that, life completely changed.

Before the diagnosis I would see my friends every week, I played football for a local team, had swim lessons every Friday and was part of a number of other after school clubs. Now, all our lives revolved around doctors’ appointments, chemotherapy, and multiple blood transfusions.

My parents spent a lot of time away at the hospital too, meaning my sister and I would often stay with our grandparents. 

The hardest thing though was seeing Charlie decline so rapidly. He lost his hair, was sick a lot of the time and, in many ways, he became a shadow of his former self.

He had always been our happy little brother. He was cheeky and cheerful, but now he was quiet and had no interest in playing even when we brought his favourite computer games, films and toys. It was heartbreaking.

After five weeks Charlie was deemed fit enough to come home, but because his treatment had left his immune system incredibly vulnerable, we once again had to find a new ‘normal’.

That meant missing out on big social events such as birthday parties or trips to public play spaces so that we could distance ourselves from potential viruses, diseases, and infections as even something as simple as a common cold would be enough to hospitalise Charlie. 

Personally, I found it forced me to mature a lot quicker as I had to quickly learn how to deal with both children and adults who would stare at Charlie – who had no hair and a nose tube – in public, as well as accept how things now had to cater for his health first.

But I never once blamed him for any of it. All I wanted was for my baby brother to be OK.

Thankfully, in 2014, we learned that his treatment was coming to an end, and doctors were hopeful that he would soon be in remission.

However, in order to regain some of the strength that chemotherapy took from him, doctors advised Charlie to take up exercise, which is when we began attending parkrun events.

Naturally, it didn’t take long for our competitive streak to take over and we were soon going each week to battle it out. I just loved seeing Charlie gradually get stronger.

Still, as a family we wanted to mark the huge challenge he had overcome. That’s when my parents remembered the charity, Rays of Sunshine.

Established in 2003, aims to brighten the lives of seriously ill children in the UK by granting magical wishes and during one of his hospital stays, Charlie and my parents were introduced to them.

We got back in touch and, when one of their staff asked Charlie for his wish, it took him less than 30 seconds to come up with an answer.

‘I want to swim with killer whales!’ He announced proudly. I just burst out laughing – that was the Charlie I knew and loved. Adventurous and completely crazy!

Unfortunately for him, but unsurprisingly for the rest of us, there was nowhere that would allow a six-year-old to swim with killer whales. So, Rays of Sunshine organised the next best thing – Charlie would get to swim with dolphins in Florida.

I think we were all a little shocked when we were told Charlie’s wish had been granted, but as we already had a holiday to the States booked, they’d arranged for us to spend a day at Discovery Cove as part of our trip.

In August 2016, we all flew to Orlando, Florida for the holiday of a lifetime. We were so excited that I don’t think any of us slept the night before our swim but the exhaustion was worth it to see Charlie speed through the water alongside. 

He was not only back to his old self but he seemed to have a whole new level of confidence. He was louder, cheekier and on top of the world.  

For that reason alone the whole day was magical. Not to mention that, aside from swimming with dolphins, we went snorkelling with other fish and near sharks and even saw a killer whale, just like Charlie wanted.

My favourite memories of that trip though are the moments when just the five of us were playing stupid games on the beach. It had been so long since we’d got to just be a family and have fun together, that it’s something I now truly treasure.

Since that holiday, I’m pleased to say, Charlie’s health has gone from strength to strength. He went into remission shortly after the holiday and received the all clear in 2020, and was fully discharged this year.

Rays of Sunshine gave my family memories to treasure forever

Of course, we kept attending parkrun as much as we could and have now completed a combined 500 events, though this year I am taking things one step further and will be taking part in the London Marathon. And there was really only one charity that I wanted to do it for.

Rays of Sunshine gave my family memories to treasure forever but that holiday won’t have come cheap – I dread to think what a trip like that would cost now. So, I am running to help other families make magical memories like we did.

I’ve been training daily and Charlie has been by my side every step of the way. And while he won’t be taking part with me, he’ll be cheering me along on the big day. 

I’m just so grateful that he’s still here and that he’ll get to see me as I cross that finishing line.  

To support Joe’s London Marathon challenge and help grant more wishes to children like Charlie, please visit his JustGiving page: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/joe-bennett11