Dearest Friends,
What an emotional rollercoaster the last 12 months have been - but with your help Myrtle was granted further leave to remain until 2024 as well as pension credit and attendance allowance!
We wanted to thank you once again for all your help and support over the years which turned things around for Myrtle!
You're literally her guardian angels - so we were thinking that if you wanted to send her a birthday card, that would be a wonderful surprise! (Myrtle and her daughter Mary live at 1 Douglas Gardens, POOLE, Dorset, BH12 2AG.)
In response to your lovely comments in response to the last update:
We have no doubt that it was people power i.e. YOU (rather than common sense) that made the crucial difference in Myrtle's case and saved her from being removed to a country where she had no-one and where she would have died a lonely and heartbreaking death.
When we started this petition in early 2016 (when Myrtle was 92), the Home Office was determined to remove her to South Africa despite her ill-health and compassionate circumstances. They had even booked plane tickets and a medical escort.
This petition, the support for Myrtle and the public uproar (which showed that removing Myrtle was an unpopular move and would not reflect well on the Home Secretary) combined with new medical evidence and legal submissions resulted in an initial grant of 2.5 years with a prohibition on access to public funds.
Since then, Myrtle had to reapply for permission to stay every 2.5 years (worrying every time again whether her application would be granted to be able to remain with her daughter Mary).
And we had to fight for the lifting of the 'no recourse to public funds' condition which prevented Myrtle and Mary from access to vital financial support as, due to a tragic loss of Mary's husband during the pandemic, they were facing destitution.
Thankfully, despite significant delays from the Home Office in deciding her leave to remain application and her application to lift the prohibition on public funds and a subsequent delay by the DWP in assessing her application for pension credit, Myrtle was finally granted access to public support this year (in 2022) after we threatened the Home Office with judicial review and submitted a complaint with the DWP.
In 2026, Myrtle can finally apply for indefinite leave to remain and in 2027, she can apply for British citizenship.
(Unfortunately, under the Immigration Rules any person like Myrtle who was granted leave to remain on the basis that removing them would breach their family or private life only gets permission to stay for 2.5 years and after that has to reapply again and again until they have been in the UK lawfully for 10 years. Only then can they apply for indefinite leave to remain - even if their circumstances are still the same. This is of course very stressful, it requires a considerable administrative effort and is costly as so many of you have rightly pointed out.)
So whilst the battle is not fully over until 2027 (when Myrtle is 104!), we can all celebrate significant victories together this year: a grant of leave to remain and grant of financial support preventing her falling into destitution as well as Myrtle's 99th birthday this Friday (11th November)!
Because we believe that there can be no doubt that without YOUR help, she would not have made it to 99!
Happy birthday Myrtle!
With best wishes from Mary Wills (Myrtle's daughter) and Jan Doerfel (Myrtle's barrister)