Holding on to hope

Rachel Pickthall, 53, London

Dialling my big brother Simon Hodgson-Greaves, then 25,1 couldn’t wait to tell him the good news.

‘I’m moving to London!’ I squealed when he picked up, and Simon started cheering.

‘Can’t wait to be nearer again,’ he said.

It was 1990, and Simon and I had been inseparable through our teenage years.

Two years older than me, he was my idol.

He introduced me to his eclectic taste in music.

At home, it’d been us with our parents Roy and Gail, our big sister Julia and little sister Kate.

Simon, the only boy, was doted on