A CANCER patient who had a bone marrow transplant from an American donor after claiming his sister refused to help him has died.
Simon Pretty had the transplant at Christie Hospital in Manchester in June and it was a success. But within weeks, his leukaemia returned.
Doctors said there was nothing else they could do, so Mr Pretty, from Mobberley, Cheshire, went home to spend time with his partner and their three young children. He died, aged 46, at East Cheshire Hospice in Macclesfield.
In February, he was told he only had a few months to live unless he had a transplant.
His sister Helen was the perfect match for his rare tissue type, but he said she refused to help and accused her of condemning him to death.
Experts at the hospital in Withington said one factor for the disease to return can be a delay between chemotherapy and transplant.
Mr Pretty vowed never to forgive his sister or mother, Rosalie, 74, from Wilmslow, who stood by her daughter. Speaking in June, just after the operation, 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."
He spent his last weeks at home with his partner Jacqueline Fenton and children, Rebecca, nine, Jack, six, and Benjamin, three.
When Mr Pretty was first diagnosed with leukaemia in 2004, he said his mother and sister wept at his bedside as he was given a 45 per cent of survival.
Although the family weren't very close, Helen, 43, didn't hesitate to have the bone marrow test and Mr Pretty said she promised to help. But while he went through gruelling cycles of chemotherapy, he admitted their relationship deteriorated
Months later, Mr Pretty's cancer returned and he was told his only chance was a bone marrow transplant - and there were no matches on the British donor database.
He called at his sister's house to tell her the news, but discovered she had changed her mind about the donation.
A spokeswoman for the Christie said: "We are very sad that Simon lost his fight against leukaemia.
It is always upsetting when, despite all the efforts of our doctors and the best possible treatment, we are not able to save our patients.
"Our thoughts are with Simon's family and friends at this very difficult time."
Helen has always refused to speak about her brother's allegations.
To register as a bone marrow donor call the Anthony Nolan Trust: 020 7284 1234.
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Transplant man loses fight for life
August 25, 2007
Simon Pretty
Showing comments 1 to 5 and replies | View All
Pandora (25/08/2007 at 16:21)
60schild (25/08/2007 at 23:46)
Ian (26/08/2007 at 14:55)
Unless my sister tried to set me on fire or run me over, repeatedly and without good reason, prostitute her own children, or molest my children she would get my help in a situation like this. She can insult me, mock me, disapprove of me, achieve 100 times more than me, marry a muppet, and disagree with everything I ever say, and I’ll still give her bone marrow if that’s what she needs to live.
Reading his story and his own comments you can see he was quite in love with himself and wasn’t exactly the self-critical type (at least the way he was quoted), but I hardly think the sentence for having your head up your own backside is death.
If he’d been a rotten brother for the last 45 years, he would have had another 30 or 40 years to make up for it. There’s power in standing by and letting someone die but there’s also power in helping them to live; she would have still gotten her kicks and at least no one would have had to die. As it is, unless there’s a MAJOR factor that we don’t know about, his mother and sister are monsters and if selfishness was one of his lesser qualities, we certainly know it runs in his family.
Ms D, Manchester (26/08/2007 at 15:08)
sarahx, manchester (27/08/2007 at 16:05)