London dash in bid for boy’s life

Press, 16 January 1979, Page 4

London dash in bid for boy’s life

NZPA Adelaide Doctors at Westminster Hospital in London will begin to prepare for a possible bone-marrow transplant for Anthony Nolan, aged seven, as soon as he arrives from Adelaide today. Specialists hope to transplant bone marrow from the boy’s parents after adapting it with an untried technique which uses drugs. Mrs Nolan said yesterday that she had planned to go to London in March, but her son’s health had deteriorated seriously over Christmas. She said that it would be a first in world medicine if the marrow could be adapted for transplant. Anthony Nolan’s rare

blood disease leaves him exposed to the slightest infection. He spent several years in England while Mrs Nolan searched in vain for a suitable donor. The Nolan family left Adelaide last evening for London, where Anthony will be taken by ambulance straight to Westminster Hospital and isolated from potential infection for several weeks. “We are very upset about having to go, but we cannot sit by while he is in pain,” Mrs Nolan said. “The plan is something of a long shot, but it is the only alternative left. “I have fought for Anthony for so long. We will try every last avenue to keep him alive and well.”