Best of 2025: My son Charlie - and the breakthrough that changed our lives
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When James Coney's son Charlie missed milestone after milestone, he knew something wasn't right. It would take 12 years before one phone call would change their lives. They learned that, not only was there finally an answer, but Charlie's DNA had been used as part of a huge scientific breakthrough.
This episode was first published in February.
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Guest: James Coney, News Projects Editor, The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producer: Taryn Siegel.
Photo: Times Media Ltd.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, it's Manvine. |
| 0:01.8 | The team behind the story is taking a much-needed break to celebrate the Christmas period. |
| 0:06.7 | So for the next few days, we're dipping into our archives to share some of our favourite episodes from 2025. |
| 0:13.2 | We'll be back with new stories in the new year. |
| 0:15.7 | But until then, enjoy. |
| 0:19.5 | From the Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story. |
| 0:24.0 | I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:28.0 | I'm James Coney. |
| 0:30.3 | I'm the News Projects editor at the Sunday Times. |
| 0:34.6 | And I'm also the dad of Charlie, who I'm going to talk about today. |
| 0:42.6 | Charlie came into this world in a hurry. We didn't live very far from the hospital in London, |
| 0:49.8 | in Tooting, where we lived. And Sarah went upstairs, and I did that thing. We have to go and |
| 0:53.3 | park the car and you can't find anywhere. |
| 0:55.2 | And I was running around and came back into the hospital. |
| 0:58.9 | And literally the moment I got into the room, Sarah was there basically giving birth. |
| 1:08.6 | But it would later prove to be the kind of last thing that Charlie ever really did in a hurry. |
| 1:16.4 | Because from that moment onwards, everything he did was late. |
| 1:22.1 | He missed all of those milestones from breastfeeding to the first smile |
| 1:29.1 | to babbling |
| 1:31.0 | to sitting up |
| 1:32.6 | rolling over |
| 1:33.8 | he missed them all |
... |
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