Nicosia - A six-year-old Greek-Cypriot boy gravely ill with leukaemia has received a bone marrow transplant at the M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas, writes Michael Jansen. Dr Loizos Loisou of the Makarios Hospital in Nicosia, who had been treating the boy, Andreas Vassiliou, before his transfer to the US, announced yesterday that the operation "went well".
Last month 50,000 Greek- and Turkish-Cypriots breached the Green Line that has divided the island for 25 years and united in a campaign to find a marrow match for Andreas. A Turkish-Cypriot boy, Kemal Saracoglu, under treatment for the disease at London's Royal Free Hospital, was also adopted by the campaign.
The overwhelming response of Greekand Turkish-Cypriots to the plight of the two boys has encouraged peace activists to relaunch bicommunal activities, suspended in 1997.