National Post Excerpt: I became a human chimera
How my sister's cells attacked my body, and changed my life. "It would be another 25 years before I learned about blood tissue, cells, genes and DNA. Before I would understand that I’d become a sort of human chimera. Like the fire-breathing creature from Greek mythology — with a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail — my body was no longer just my own. I was host to my sister and myself." I knew it was a medical Hail Mary play — a first-of-its-kind procedure in Canada, with an eight per cent chance of success. It was 1988 [...]