Terminally ill Leeds woman's desperate search to trace sister after '˜silly argument' 30 years ago

A terminally ill woman is making an emotional plea for help to be re-united with her estranged sister to whom she has not spoken for 30 years.
Anne Marsden, 75. She is trying to trace her sister Elaine Hick nee Stead  whom she hasn't spoken to for 30 years after a  silly argument. Anne is terminally ill and has not got long to live and wants to get back in touch. Despite attempts to track her down she has had no luck. Anne lives in Old Farnley and she last knew that her sister was in Garforth.Anne Marsden, 75. She is trying to trace her sister Elaine Hick nee Stead  whom she hasn't spoken to for 30 years after a  silly argument. Anne is terminally ill and has not got long to live and wants to get back in touch. Despite attempts to track her down she has had no luck. Anne lives in Old Farnley and she last knew that her sister was in Garforth.
Anne Marsden, 75. She is trying to trace her sister Elaine Hick nee Stead whom she hasn't spoken to for 30 years after a silly argument. Anne is terminally ill and has not got long to live and wants to get back in touch. Despite attempts to track her down she has had no luck. Anne lives in Old Farnley and she last knew that her sister was in Garforth.

Anne Marsden, 75, is living on borrowed time and wants to make amends with her younger sibling after what she says was “a silly argument” three decades ago.

Since then the sisters have moved on, had ups and downs and Mrs Marsden of Old Farnley wants to make contact and fulfil a promise she made to their late mother that she would “look after” her sister, who will now be aged 61.

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But she says she has tried everything she can think of over the last five years in a bid to track down Elaine Hick (nee Stead) as she was last known.

Mrs Marsden, of Bawn Approach, has a cyst on her stomach, has had heart failure twice and has been told by doctors there is a 99 per cent chance she would die on the operating table if she had surgery.

She said: “I have been poorly for 11 years but now I am very poorly. I haven’t got long and I can’t find her anywhere.”

She last knew that Elaine was living in Garforth at number 28 Hillside and was a hairdresser but also used to work at a butchers on Garforth Main Street.

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However, she has since moved from that house and could possibly be living in Allerton Bywater.

It is also possible that Elaine, who has two daughters Stacey and Gillian and a son called Darren, re-married around 15 years ago and is known by a different surname.

Mrs Marsden said: “My son went to the house about two years ago but she wasn’t there. I have tried the library, the post office at Garforth and the police but they can’t help.

“I have tried everywhere I can think of but because I don’t know her surname I can’t check the electoral roll.”

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In the time since the pair last spoke, their two older sisters - Joan and Pauline - have passed away but Elaine wasn’t at either funeral so it is unclear if she even knows they have died.

They also have a half brother called Graham who still lives in York, where the family grew up.

Mrs Marsden, who had general cleaning jobs, has a son aged 42 and is now a widow after her husband, former council worker Roy, died.

She added: “I want to say sorry for what was said and I want her in my life for what life I have got left.”