LIVERPOOL DAILY POST

SOS for a good Samaritan

Feb 22 2007 by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post

AN EMERGENCY SOS went out to Liverpool's business community last night, to help save the life of a city entrepreneur dying from leukaemia.

Father-of-three Simon Pretty, who is in his early 40s, needs a bone marrow transplant within weeks to give him any chance of survival.

So far the search for a marrow match have been elusive, and Mr Pretty is undergoing chemotherapy in Manchester's Christie's Hospital.

Last night, directors at one of Liverpool's best-known new media companies, River Media, pleaded with the city's business world to help find what they described as a needle in a haystack.

E-mails were sent to hundreds of local businesses urging anybody to come forward to a special clinic in the city on February 28 in the hope that a match can be found.

Mr Pretty is a co-founder of River Media and heads the company's human resources section. Company director Jon Corner wrote in the plea: "We at River are in desperate need of help. A colleague of ours is terminally ill with cancer and has been given a few months to live.

"He is in need of a bone marrow transplant and if we manage to find the right donor, we can save the life of this wonderful man. We really need your help."

River Media, one of the city's leading creative companies, was set up in the 1990s by Mr Corner and codirector Paul Rodgers with help from Mr Pretty.

Mr Corner said: "We are desperately hoping that a complete stranger will step forward to save Simon's life.

"Simon was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukaemia in July, 2004. Although Simon has coped with his illness for the last two years, tests have now shown that his situation is changing and he needs a bone marrow transplant to ensure his survival."

His doctors are in daily contact with the Anthony Nolan Register which searches a national data base for potential bone marrow matches.

River Media has set up a clinic where people can join the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Register.

It will be held next Wednesday at Tower Group in St Martins Building, Water Street, from 10am to 5pm.

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Bone marrow register that can offer a stranger a chance of life

EVERY 21 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with a potentially life threatening disorder like leukaemia, where often the only chance of a full cure is to have a bone marrow transplant.

Fewer than 30% of these patients will find a family member with compatible blood stem cells to donate.

Laura Turner, Donor Recruitment Manager at the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Register, said: "We hope that everyone who hears about Simon's plight will want to help out by joining our register.

"Potential donors need to be between 18 and 40 and in good health. They will be asked to complete a medical form and then give a small blood sample.

This will then be tissue-typed and the information held on our database of donors, which is regularly searched for the thousands of patients who are looking for a match."

The trust helps patients like Simon by holding a register of volunteers who are willing to donate their bone marrow to a complete stranger.

In most cases, this transplant offers the patient their only chance of survival.