I have a film loaded SLR can it be converted to a digital SLR

I can tell you for sure that it is not possible to convert a camera body (within a reasonable financial investment, to be precise) to digital. If the owner likes that lens, he can consider buying the body of a digital camera of the same family (presumably limited to Nikon, Canon and Pentax), which can at least be used as a manual head. Many enthusiasts with a bit of photographic credentials are using old lenses from the film era with good imaging, and in some cases (probably most cases) can only set the exposure parameters manually. If possible, the owner said the brand, model and general parameters of the lens in hand, perhaps we can provide further reference advice.