The Immortalist

I am Alan Sinclair 65 and live with my wife Sylvia in the south of England we have four children.

I went to School at Pitmans Collage, a school specializing in academic qualification, short hand and typing, four languages were high on the curriculum and we were encouraged to become doctors, diplomats or lawyers at the very least.

You can imagine the horror of the head master when I told him I wanted to be an engineer. He was horrified and had no idea which way to point me stating, Pitman's had never been asked to find such a position.

I had hated school with a passion, I hated every minute I attended and was only in this god-forsaken place because I had the misfortune to pass the exams that suggested I was bright.

I suppose I was quite bright, but I now know I was also dyslexic, a condition not recognized in those days, which makes going to a secretarial college a total nonsense.

I had always wanted to work with my hands and the thought of sitting at a typewriter all day in an office gave me nightmares.

I trained as an engineer and a part time racing driver and enjoyed every minute of it. To this day I will only pick up a pen or go on the computer to write if pressed, but with the introduction of spell check I do have a chance of being understood.

Unfortunately, in my late teens, I had a nasty accident while showing off on the track and broke my neck.

I was extremely lucky because after being plastered up and being told I may never walk, I came across a Chinese osteopath in Wimbledon where I was living at the time.

Today this would not seam strange, but in the fifties, it was as strange as cryonics today. Alternative medicines of any kind was looked upon as crazy by the medical profession.

In fact, the day I was to measure for a body support, I walked into the hospital, and proudly showed the doctor I was out of the chair, able to walk freely with little pain and stated what wonderful results the osteopath had produced.

Instead of looking into to benefits, he discharged me and said he would not see me again because I had gone against medical advice. (much the same as we experience today if we mention cryonics to our doctors).

Because of limited ability lifting for a while I decided to go into electronics where I stayed until my mid thirties, I had several shops and always employed a secretary while I was happy to work on the shop floor.

As the big companies took over the domestic market I decided it was time for another change in direction and opened a nursing home for the over sixties. As I am now over sixty I retired before they took me over!!!

I was about forty-nine and had already spent some years as a nursing home owner when I heard about cryonics.

From quite a young age I had been aware that no matter what we achieved life was to short. This came to mind first when the King died, I was only fourteen and this was the first time I had considered the fact that even very important people with all this money still end up dead.

This thought did not dominate my life and in fact was soon forgotten, I am not a depressive but every so often this fact of life would service and I used to think what a pity people could not put the same energies into extending life as they do in killing.

I first came across cryonics through a weekly TV program run by a Dr Miriam Stoppard which tackled subjects that were thought to be controversial and on this particular week it was the turn of cryonics.

Dora Kent had just been suspended (along with the publicity) Dr Martinot a French doctor had popped his wife in a freezer a couple of years before and a couple of UK members who had already signed up, although it wasn't all positive but I thought what a GREAT idea.

I spoke to a doctor friend of mine and we came to their conclusion there was a outside chance it may work.

I contacted Alcor because they were the one's represented on the program and later met Mike Darwin on a visit to the UK.

My impressions were what a great bunch of chaps these people were, they seemed be the only people I had met that had there priorities right they were trying to save life.

The more I learned the better it became. A leading person in cryobiology working on vitrification assured us this new process was just round the corner (that was in 1989!!!!)

Rightly or wrongly, I concluded that without a proper unit to perform a suspension my chances of being revived would be compromised.

As all the male side of my family seamed to die before sixty, and I was forty nine by this time, I felt a degree of urgency in setting up a facility.

This was opened in 1990, being a bright sort of chap!!! I new if we had a facility, equipment and enough advertising we would have hundreds of new members in a year or two (This is possibly the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life).

We had a international cryonics conference at Gatwick, spoke with almost every new paper in England (on the front page of many) and spent months with the TV and press full time and yes we had two enquiries. The UK wasn't ready for cryonics.

Like all newcomers, I just couldn't believe it, why couldn't they see what a wonderful opportunity cryonics offers? I still feel this way today but now I have given up bashing my head against a brick wall.

In those days before computers, email and even faxes, there was a bitter rivalry between Alcor and CI (at least Alcor thought so) but I insisted if the UK were going to offer a suspension team it had to be for ALL. Therefore, I persuaded Alcor to allow CI members to have access to the UK method that I felt was better at that time. I sill feel the same that we should all work towards the best suspension for all and now I am a CI member our suspension group Cryonics Europe is made up of Alcor and CI members.

I strongly feel that while we are small in numbers we should help one another to get the best possible suspension no matter whom our service provider will be and the fact that some in cryonics don't want this I find extremely frustrating. Why is something so important so hard to achieve.

My wife is very supportive even when I spent our retirement fund on the facility!!! Most of my friends realize that I am family sensible and look at everything from a scientific view so wouldn't embark on this without a great deal of thought.

My children are supportive although they haven't signed up yet.