Posted on 03/26/2007 3:27:31 PM PDT by paltz
A cancer victim has accused his sister of condemning him to death by refusing to donate her bone marrow for a life-saving operation.
Father-of-three Simon Pretty is likely to die from leukaemia within months unless he receives a transplant.
His sister Helen, 43, is a perfect match but he says she has turned down the chance to save his life. Without the donation Mr Pretty – who has a rare tissue type – could be dead by the end of the year leaving his wife Jacqueline to raise their children Rebecca, eight, Jack, six and Benjamin, three.
he human resources manager from Mobberley, Cheshire, is receiving aggressive chemotherapy in an attempt to stay alive long enough to find another donor.
What a donor has to go through Doctors have said that to have the best chance of survival he must find a match by the end of the summer.
He has already exhausted the UK bone marrow register and doctors are looking for a match from strangers on international databases.
"I am on death row," said Mr Pretty. "I can’t believe that she would let my three children lose their father so unnecessarily by her actions.
Helen Pretty has declined to comment "We found a prayer in Rebecca’s coat which said: 'Please don’t let my daddy die from cancer'. That brought tears to my eyes."
Helen Pretty’s Cheshire home is less than ten miles away from the British Transplantation Society which campaigns to promote organ and bone marrow donation.
Her brother claims she agreed to be a donor after he was first diagnosed with the rare cancer, acute promyelocytic leukaemia, in July 2004. He went into remission but then suffered a relapse in February by which time she had changed her mind, he says.
The pair have never been close although their children are similar ages and play together.
Mr Pretty’s wife Jacqueline said: "It is appalling that Helen can stand by and watch her brother die knowing that she could do something to help him. The past few months have been hell."
Mrs Pretty approached her sister-in-law in an attempt to change her mind but lost her temper and was eventually arrested. No charge was brought.
Jacqueline Pretty said: "She opened the front door halfway and I told her that things were desperate and the children thought their daddy was going to die. She said 'Sorry, I am not doing it'. I asked her to give me a reason and she said 'I am putting my family first'.
"I explained that there were no risks involved. I was so upset and I said, 'Don’t you care if your brother dies?' She said 'It’s very sad', and smirked."
The family then received a letter from his sister’s solicitor asking them to keep their distance.
Parent governor Helen, 43, declined to comment yesterday.
She runs a private education business from her £380,00 home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, which she shares with her partner and her daughter, eight, and son, three.
Mr Pretty, who has two masters degrees, is studying for a PhD in industrial relations while being treated in hospital.
He said: "The treatment is tough and it is tortuous to go on with, especially as it would be unnecessary had she come forward. I have had a skin full of chemotherapy and all the side effects but I have a young family and I have to keep my spirits up for them."
Mr Pretty said he hoped that his plight would highlight the lack of bone marrow donors in the UK. He added: "Some people do not have a family member who is a match, even one who will not co-operate."
A spokesman for the Anthony Nolan Trust, which has a database of potential UK bone marrow donors, said: "About 30 per cent of patients could get a match from their own family – usually siblings.
"The chance of finding a match outside of family is very small and there are never enough donors."
A less than exact bone marrow match has a smaller chance of beating the cancer.
Trust chief executive Dr Steve McEwan added: "As with any medical procedure there are risks. However, we are not aware of long-term side effects of the process of donating bone marrow. Donors describe it as a very positive experience."
Osama bin Laden is wanted "dead or alive". He wouldn't make it to the operating table to receive the donation.
In any sane part of the world.
I'm in California, we give heart transplants to death row inmates.
Hey trussell!
I would like to believe if he isn't dead already, and he was found, he would be shot on site. Forget the trial. I would be just as happy to see him laying on a slab from a bullet between the eyes as to see him swinging at the end of a rope...and it would be so much cheaper. :)
Hi Pax. Looking forward to seeing you soon! I head that way Next Sunday. :)
Me too!
Looking forward to seeing you, too!
Now I'm headed to Eaker and TheMom's for dinner!
Later!
You would fault a man for whining when he is about to die and leave 3 young children without a daddy?
You would fault his wife and mother of his children for trying everything possible to save him?
You want him to accept death like a man, when all it would take to help him live would be a loving act by his sister?
You would fault a man for whining when he is about to die and leave 3 young children without a daddy?
You would fault his wife and mother of his children for trying everything possible to save him?
You want him to accept death like a man, when all it would take to help him live would be a loving act by his sister?"
Let me fault you for your reading comprehension.
I said if his sis said no, no ,no, quit hounding her.
What are you referring to here? Taipei? or tribute capitalism in mainland China?
There is no true capitalism in mainland China.
"Communist" China is and always has been a scam: one Dynasty merely replaced another.
Communism is the scam, not communist China, that is all too real. Communism caused substantial change from the previous dynasties and caused more real damage more quickly than any previous system. For that reason it was modified more quickly than previous systems in a successful attempt to maintain power for the insider communists that are now operating a communist governmental system rather than a communist economic system.
Compulsion in organ donation IS a right vs left issue, it is a tenet of capitalism that makes the right right on this issue.
> There is no true capitalism in mainland China.
Disagree. There is plenty of unbridled Capital accumulation in China, and strong systems in place to facilitate same. Capitalism isn't the same thing as Democracy as you know: tho' the two concepts when used together are very powerful.
There isn't one word in this article about forced donation by an "Evil government." Your knee jerks very easily.
Secondly, she is willing to see not just her brother, but close acquaintances such as her sister in law and nephews and nieces go through unnecessary emotional torture and smirk about the whole evil mess she is responsible for.
Any way you parse it her behavior is execrable and shows she is a contemptible person.
All business enterprises in China require a government approved partner, much like the Mafia partnership with small business in the protection rackets.
Without the partner, you don't do business, they just have learned not to bleed the business dry. This is tribute capitalism, it will slowly go away like most of the protection rackets, but by the time it does, the communist insiders will be oligarchs and their wealth and control will never end.
It is a very clever way to avoid the collapse that communism always creates, convert communist rule to oligarchy and leave enough to keep the producers producing.
Don't look too far ahead, now, it's much more fun to be surprised.
Har har. Sarcasm is a nice way of disguising alarmism.
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