This is Shirley Kordie. She’s 33-years-old and mum to her four-year-old son, Blessing. For the last seven years, she’s been living with hypoplastic MDS – a very rare form of blood cancer. Now, time is running out and her doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham have said she urgently needs a stem cell transplant to survive.

Shirley’s brother Joseph, who works as a nurse in Ghana, is a perfect 10/10 match and ready to donate his stem cells to try and save Shirley’s life. However, the Home Office has refused his visa application to come over to the UK to donate. The reason given is that he doesn’t earn enough money.

The refusal letter from UK Visas and Immigration stated: “While I am aware of the importance of family contact and the compassionate nature of your application, I must, however, also consider your personal and financial circumstances in Ghana when addressing your application.”

Blood cancer charities Anthony Nolan and the African-Caribbean Leukaemia Trust are working together to support Shirley’s case and help get this decision overturned. 

As someone who works for Anthony Nolan I know how vital it is for patients to have speedy access to the best possible donor. Every day of delay leaves Shirley more and more vulnerable. She’s entirely reliant on blood transfusions to reduce her life-threatening anaemia and her reduced white blood cells put her at high risk of infection.

Shirley desperately wants to be well again so she can return to work and go back to her home in Walsall, near Birmingham, to be there to support her son. “My life is in danger - I need to get my life back for my son. I have my little boy, and I want to live for him.”

There are no other options for a donor on the international stem cell registers, and no way for Joseph to donate in Ghana. Shirley’s best chance of survival is for her brother to be allowed to come to the UK and donate.

Please sign this petition and ask the Home Office to grant Joseph’s visa so he can make a lifesaving donation to Shirley, here in the UK.