Cancer patient cries out after agency denies bone marrow donor visa

Doctors fear for a woman with rare blood cancer after the Home Office refused her brother a visa so he could donate bone marrow.

Shirley Kordie, 33, has hypoplastic MDS and doctors say she will die unless she gets a life – saving transplant from Joseph, a nurse in Ghana.

But the Home Office says Joseph doesn’t have enough money to be given a visa – despite his stem cells being a perfect match for his sister.

She said: “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.”

Medics are now running out of time to keep mother -of -one Shirley, from Walsall, West Midlands, alive.

Her family says Joseph only wants to come to the UK to donate bone marrow to his sister, mother of Blessing, four, and then go home.

Medical charity, Anthony Nolan and the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust, has launched a campaign to support Ms Kordie, who has been receiving treatment at Birmingham ’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

A petition urging the government to reverse its decision has amassed around 10 , 000 signatures in just 36 hours and now the Home Office said it is ‘urgently reviewing ’ the case , Anthony Nolan spokeswoman Amelia Chong said: “Her brother is a perfect 10 out of 10 match for her.

“We have reviewed all those on the donor list and he is not only the perfect match, he is the only match. All Joseph needs is a temporary visa to undergo the procedure.”

Orin Lewis, chief executive of the ACLT, said: “The stark reality is Shirley has no other option.

“The search for an unrelated donor is made difficult due to her African heritage, which means she is three times less likely to find a perfect match.”

( Metro )