Dear Friends! Your amazing support made it possible for Myrtle to remain in the UK and we cannot thank you enough for that! Unfortunately, the Government did not change the law to avoid this from happening again - and so it has happened again. This time it is Brenda Ackerman, a vulnerable 71-year-old South African grandmother, who the Home Office wants to remove to South Africa where she has not lived for 12 years and where there is no-one to look after her - even though the effect of removing her to SA would be catastrophic. Please sign the petition to ask the Government to allow her to stay and to make your voices heard even louder again to drive home the message that the law must be changed: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/219993 Brenda has been living with her loving family (her daughter Candice, her British son-in-law Martin and her British granddaughters Megan (aged 19) and Maisie* (aged 16) since 2006. First in Dubai where Martin was working, then – from 2013 – in the UK when Martin was made redundant and the family had to return to the UK. The Home Office wants to remove Brenda even though her family is looking after her emotionally and financially, she holds private health insurance and will not be relying on the public purse – and even though the consequences of her removal are irreversible and inhumane: Brenda is suffering from a Major Depressive Disorder and Generalised Anxiety Disorder and medical reports show that if forced to return to South Africa, her mental health would deteriorate to such an extent that this would result in “intense suffering”, a “large risk … of death” and “significant shortening” of her life. Brenda also cannot walk unaided and an occupational therapist’s report warned that she is at risk of falls and needs to be with her family. And her family need her, too: she is not only a mother and grandmother to her daughter and granddaughters but also their best friend. She has looked after her granddaughters as long as they can remember and they are terrified of losing her – so much so that one granddaughter has started self-harming. The family need your help just to be allowed to look after Brenda. In her daughter Candice’s own words: “It is my duty to provide for her and a task I relish and wish to do, as I am who I am not by my own doing but by the wonderful love, support and protection offered me by the most amazing woman I have the good fortune to call “Mom”. Please sign the petition to save Brenda as you did Myrtle: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/219993 Together we can do it - again, Jan Doerfel (barrister) and Mary Wills (Myrtle’s daughter)