I suspect that this regret probably has quite a lot to do with the recipient being the stepfather's brother. I.e. not a blood relative; kind of distant.
Says who? I know many people personally who are closer to their step-families than they are to their blood families. Just because someone donated some of their DNA to produce you doesn't necessarily make them worthy of being family.
Not as distant as you'd think. I could actually see it being that the recipient is close enough you'll get information regularly about the person (i.e. small events that happen), rather than a complete stranger who you'd hear from only occasionally if at all.
I also wonder how much pressure he was under to help because of the match, and how much he felt that he'd be disappointing the people around him if he didn't. I know as a kid that kind of pressure would have weighed on me heavily and has lead me to have some regrets about my past (though nothing nearly this large).
