Each one represents a step in his journey after being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumour in March last year.
He has beads for chemotherapy - which he has endured for a year.
He has beads for radiation, hair loss, overnight stays in the hospital, outpatient visits, blood tests and intravenous antibiotics, among other things.
And with just six weeks' chemotherapy remaining, Charlie has no signs of the medulloblastoma which had threatened his life, but has nine long strings loaded with Child Cancer Foundation Beads of Courage which tell the story of the past 12 months of his short life.
His mother, Keighley Redshaw (39), knew something was wrong with her toddler shortly after his second birthday last January.
Initially she suspected an inner-ear infection, as through about eight weeks Charlie became increasingly unbalanced before developing a "head lag" and having periods of being "spaced out".
"He couldn't walk around without holding someone's hand."
Charlie was taken to a doctor for a checkup.
Mrs Redshaw suspected the doctor had "an inkling" and was told Charlie would need to go to see a specialist in Dunedin.
But on March 6, 2010, when the toddler woke up and vomited, the visit to the specialist was brought forward.
"He had an MRI [scan] on the morning of March 7 where they found an enormous great tumour in his head.
"By Sunday night we were on a Life Flight to Starship [Hospital] in Auckland."
It was the beginning of a journey which Mrs Redshaw describes as "hideous; ghastly", with her tiny child diagnosed shortly after surgery with a medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumour.
"It's one of those things as a parent you never want to hear: that your child has a tumour, a life-threatening tumour.
"Cancer is such a provocative word. You think, 'They're going to die.'
"But the survival rates for childhood cancer are actually really high. It's not an automatic death sentence.
"It is a hideous process; months of making your child as sick as they can possibly be [in an effort] to make them better.
"As human beings we have a period of grieving, and then survivor mode kicks in.
"You just do what needs to be done."
After the diagnosis, Mrs Redshaw and her husband Richard Woodward (41) were told Charlie would need to undergo four months of high-intensity chemotherapy, two months of consolidation chemotherapy, six weeks of focal radiation and then a final six months of maintenance treatment.
Immediately, a decision had to be made about where the family would be based for Charlie's treatment.
While originally from Auckland, Mrs Redshaw said they agreed she and Charlie would be based in Christchurch, while Mr Woodward and their now 5-year-old daughter, Emily, would stay in Wanaka.
"The chemo destroys their immune system.
"We would have a monthly cycle of having chemo and waiting for the immune system to drop to nothing, then they catch everything going around, get really sick, get rushed back to hospital and treated.
"And then he would get better just in time to have another round of chemo.
"Those six months of high-intensity chemotherapy were just this endless round of going backwards and forwards to the hospital.
"There was no point in coming home."
Charlie, however, handled the process "like a trooper".
"We certainly never sat down with him or Emily and said ... 'This is how it is.'
"It just naturally evolved on a daily basis.
"Children are very accepting with things that happen to them.
"The best thing we could do was to stay as positive as we could and have as much fun as we could.
"I explained to Charlie what was going to happen before every treatment and tried really hard not to present it in a negative way.
"When we would say we had to go into hospital for five days, he was excited - he got to see his friends and play with the toys."
Without support from family, friends, neighbours, the community and the Child Cancer Foundation, the journey would have been far more difficult, she said.
"The Child Cancer Foundation was there with really practical stuff, like grocery vouchers and mobile phone vouchers.
"You can imagine how many texts and calls you make. It's just so important to keep in touch with your family.
"There were vouchers for the cafeteria; hospitals don't feed parents. You have to be there 24/7, a lot of the time it's difficult enough to get out of the hospital environment, but you're looking after a 2-year-old, by yourself, who's hooked up to pumps and might injure themselves or someone else if they're not looked after and you can't leave them."
In November, Charlie and Mrs Redshaw were able to return to Wanaka, where they have lived for almost four years.
Charlie is continuing his treatments at home.
He has just six more weeks of chemotherapy to go and is "doing great".
There is no sign of the tumour, which was named "Brian", from a typographical error in a brain tumour book given to the family at Starship Hospital.
"He has an MRI every three months and so far everything is normal; there has been no recurrence of any tumours or malignant cells.
"We're in a really good place with it ... It's not as scary as it was."
The annual Beads of Courage collection will be held in Dunedin tomorrow and in Queenstown tomorrow and on Saturday.
