An American editor who saved a girl’s life with a transatlantic bone marrow transplant has paid his first visit to Britain as the special guest of her family – and called in on the York paper which set the ball rolling.

Newspaper editor Scott Wittchow, and his wife Gretchen, have spent a fortnight with Nicola Coates and her parents near York.

And they all visited the offices of the Evening Press, which in 1999 organised the Race for a Donor campaign to find a bone marrow donor to help Nicola in her battle against leukaemia.

The party toured the newsroom and print hall after meeting editor Kevin Booth and managing director Liz Page.

Scott & Nicola

While that campaign helped swell the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust’s register of potential donors, none was suitable for Nicola.

But tests showed that Scott, who by coincidence had joined an American donor register years ago while covering the story of a young American woman who needed a transplant, was a good match.

The transplant went ahead in early 2000, since when Nicola has made a great recovery, and she went with her family to America last year to meet Scott and thank him for saving her life. The Coates then invited the Wittchows to pay a return visit.

The paper which Scott now edits in Fond Du Lac is owned by Gannett, which also owns Newsquest, the Evening Press’s parent company.

Over the fortnight, the Coates took them on a tour of some of Britain’s top tourist spots, including Edinburgh, London, Whitby and the Yorkshire Dales.

The couple also hosted a garden party attended by about 80 friends, neighbours and family members, during which Nicola’s father Gary gave an emotional speech thanking the guest of honour for saving his daughter’s life.

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