AfxBeginThread and class member function: problem with workaround using friend function

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MFC

multi-threading

Ok, I have googled this and everything which made me do this the way I try in the first place. The actual thread is defined as friend because AfxBeginThread only takes static functions, and a pointer to the class instance is passed as argument.
But I just can't see why this is wrong.
Really glad for an explanation / correct way to do it.

Now, I wrote this as a maximally stripped down version and like this it obviously doesn't make a lot of sense.
But what I really want to do is have a thread which, as argument, receives a pointer to a class instance, and can thus manipulate class variables. Sounds easy, no?

Well, the way I tried to do it, it compiles but doesn't run, following error in the line printed in bold
Unhandled exception at 0x0041186d in simpleThread.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation reading location 0xccccccd0.

class testClass{
public:
	
	testClass();

	CEvent* pEvent;
	CWinThread* pThread;
	friend UINT ThreadProc(LPVOID lpParameter);

	void startThread();
        void sendEvent();
};


int _tmain(int argc, TCHAR* argv[], TCHAR* envp[])
{

   testClass myInstance;
   myInstance.startThread();
   Sleep(2000);
   myInstance.sendEvent();
   return 0;
}

UINT ThreadProc( LPVOID lpParameter )
{
	testClass* instance = (testClass*)(lpParameter);
	WaitForSingleObject( instance->pEvent->m_hObject, INFINITE );
	return 0L;
}

testClass::testClass(){
	CEvent* pEvent = new CEvent( FALSE, FALSE );
}

void testClass::startThread()
{
	pThread = ::AfxBeginThread( ThreadProc, this, 0, 0, 
                                    CREATE_SUSPENDED, NULL);
	pThread->m_bAutoDelete = FALSE; 
	pThread->ResumeThread();
}
void testClass::sendEvent()
{
    pEvent->SetEvent();
}

P.S.: My code is based on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/efk30beh%28v=vs.80%29.aspx[^] which is very similar, except they don't try to wrap it all up in a class.

Many thanks for solutions / suggestions.