MERCY-TRIP MAN READY FOR TESTS

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 1

MERCY-TRIP MAN READY FOR TESTS

The 23-year-old Christchurch man flown to London at the week-end for a lifesaving bone-marrow transplant to a four-year-old boy will today undergo the first of a series of complicated tests.

These will establish whether the marrow of Mr Malo loane. a trainee medical technician, is suitable for transplanting. reports the Press Association staff correspondent in London. Mr loane, a Samoan, is shown arriving at Heathrow Airport on Sunday. He was swamped by reporters and photographers at the airport. Reports of his journey were splashed under headlines.

like. “Man in a million,” “Hope for boy bone victim,” “The life saver flies in,” and “Man in a million who could save little boy’s life.” The boy, Anthony Nolan, an Australian, has a bonemarrow deficiency that makes him unable to resist anv infection, and he has had to spend his life in almost total isolation. His mother brought him to England after a similar transplant to another boy was successful. When Mr loane is at Westminster Hospital for tests today he will meet the boy’s mother, who will bring a sample of her son’s blood for tests. “A sample will be taken from

Mr loane at the same time, and then a series of tests known as a mixed lymphocity culture will begin.” said Mrs Nolan at her home in Kent yesterday. “These will take about six days.” If Mr loane’s tissue is compatible. the transplant surgery might be done before Christmas. A visiting English specialist discovered Mr loane by chance on a tissue-type list at Christchurch Hospital after an unsuccessful search had been made through files of 80,000 possible donors in Britain and the United States.