Young cancer victim will not be forgotten

A 15-year-old boy who was diagnosed with terminal cancer last year, tragically passed away earlier this year – and has left inspiration in his wake.

Joshua Castle was 14 years old when he was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer) and his mom, Penny Castle, said he was one of those total overachievers who was super fit and healthy.

Joshua (Josh as he was affectionately called) fought cancer for a full 364 days following his diagnosis and tried to fit in as much as possible. “In terms of cholangiocarcinoma, most people live between three and nine months. He was at stage four when he was diagnosed, and to live a full year is amazing,” said Penny.

During his year in Grade 8, he started losing weight. “He just said he was training and that there was nothing wrong.”

In January last year, he went to see his doctor. The doctor picked up that his liver was about twice the usual size. About two weeks later, Josh became really sick with internal bleeding. They had to use around nine units of blood to stabilise him.

“As far as we know he is one of five documented cases of this kind of cancer in children,” added Penny.

“He went to Comic Con in New York which was organised by Reach-For-A-dream, where he met one of the main writers of Batman comics.”

But for Josh, school was his main priority. Penny said the support from his school, Crawford College Sandton, was amazing and they organised the Grade 12s to assist with pushing his wheelchair and carrying his bags around.

In honour of Josh, his mom decided to donate back all the units of blood that he had needed, on what would have been his 16th birthday on 13 August last year. She started a group called The Bloody Birthday Challenge. The goal was reached very quickly and she then set a new goal of getting 364 units of blood for every day that Josh lived after his diagnosis.

Penny added that no one thought he would make his 15th birthday. “He hosted a ‘Not dead yet’ party where he invited everyone, including his medical team, so we had hundreds of people around.”

Instead of gifts, Josh asked everyone to bring a bag of supplies to be donated to the Childhood Cancer Foundation (CHOC).

His mom remembers that he was super bright and was interested in a lot of different things. “He started doing archery when he was eight and he was even back on the range last year December.”

She recalled how Josh and his younger brother Chris would watch YouTube videos on how to make things. “One day I received a call from the pharmacist who told me they were just in there buying ingredients to make smoke bombs.”

He had big dreams and his biggest dream was to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and had been dreaming about going there since he was about eight years old.

“He wanted to do computer science and specifically work with artificial intelligence.”

Even at the end of his life, Josh still attended a school camp and went to Sugar Bay in KwaZulu-Natal, where he passed away.

Penny urged everyone who is able to, to donate blood in honour of Josh and post a photo on The Bloody Birthday Challenge Facebook group so she can track the donations in his honour.

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