Woman granted UK visa to donate bone marrow to sister in U-turn by Home Office.
The government has backtracked on its decision to prevent a Nigerian woman from entering the UK so that she can donate bone marrow to help save the life of her seriously ill sister.
The decision came amid public pressure after a petition calling for May Brown’s sister Martha to be granted a visa was signed by more than 60,000 people.
“I am overjoyed for the U-turn the Home Office has taken,” she said on Friday. “I would like to thank the British public and beyond, and my MP Richard Drax, for their overwhelming support.”
May Brown, who lives in Dorset and has a two-year-old daughter Selina-May with her ex-soldier husband Mike, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia last year. Doctors said her only chance of survival was a stem cell transplant and assessed her sister, who lives in Nigeria with her own two young children, as a “10 out of 10 match”, campaigners said.
She was the only suitable match to be identified after what doctors at King’s College Hospital, London, said was “an extensive search” for another donor.
But earlier this month it emerged that Home Office officials had refused Martha the visa, saying they did not believe she would be a “genuine visitor”. Despite May Brown’s offer to pay for the trip, the officials believed Martha did not have the necessary funds to make it and that she would not return to Nigeria once the visa expired.
May Brown insisted her sister, whose children were to stay behind in Nigeria, had “no desire” to relocate to the UK.
A campaign led by the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) called for the decision to be reversed and the immigration minister, Robert Goodwill, confirmed the Home Office had relented on Friday.
“I have carefully considered the case of May Brown and decided that her sister will be granted leave to enter the UK given the compassionate and exceptional circumstances,” he said.
May Brown added: “I would also like to thank ACLT. I will forever be grateful for the love and support they have shown my family and me.”
She is currently receiving her second round of intensive chemotherapy at King’s College Hospital.
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