Transplant patients faces new cancer battle

Aug 22 2007 by David Higgerson, Liverpool Daily Post

A LIVERPOOL businessman who had a bone marrow transplant from an anonymous donor after his sister refused to help him is fighting leukaemia again.

Simon Pretty, a director at one of Liverpool’s best-known media firms, has been told the cancer has returned less than two months after undergoing a bone marrow transplant at the world-famous Christie Hospital in Manchester during June.

At the time, the operation was considered a success, but now Mr Pretty, known throughout Liver-pool because of his work at River Media, has been told the “aggres-sive leukaemia” has returned.

Doctors said it came back too quickly for them to try another transplant and there is nothing else they can do for him.

Experts at the cancer specialist hospital said there are lots of reasons why it can return, one of which can be a delay between chemotherapy and transplant.

Mr Pretty’s plight became national news when it emerged the 46-year-old’s sister, Helen, was the perfect match for his rare tissue type but she had refused to help him.

He is currently at his Cheshire home with partner Jacqueline Fenton and children, Rebecca, nine, Jack, six, and Benjamin, three.

He said he would never forgive his sister or his mother, Rosalie, 74, from Wilmslow, who had stood by her daughter's decision.

His plight first came to light when friends appealed, via the Daily Post, for people in Liverpool to be tested to see if they were bone marrow matches.

Through the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, which operates a register of potential donors, a match was found in America.

At the time, Mr Pretty said: “My own sister turned her back when she could have saved my life and my mother was prepared to sit back and watch me die.

“They didn't care that my three children would lose their daddy, my partner would be widowed or that I'd suffer a painful death.”

Mr Pretty, who was first diagnosed with cancer in 2004, had undergone four cycles of chemotherapy and said during that time his relationship with his sister deteriorated due to a series of petty rows.

He said his sister had initially agreed to donate bone marrow after being told she was a match, but later changed her mind.

Helen has always refused to speak about the allegations.

davidhiggerson