The possibility of losing access to life saving treatment is a real possibility for a 74-year-old who is battling cancer after his application to remain was refused in December 2019, with deportation back to Jamaica on the cards.

 

A Birmingham resident since 2003, Lewin Williams came to the UK on a visitors visa which ran out in June 2004, and then remained under the impression he had settled status.

After being diagnosed with myeloma, a cancer of the blood, in 2019, he has been in and out of hospital battling the illness.

According to Lewin, being sent back to Jamaica, where he has no family, would be a death sentence, "I can't pay for the treatment and if the Home Office sends me back to Jamaica, I will die because I can't afford it."

The court has granted appeal permission, and Salman Mirza from Migrant Voice, Lewin’s case worker, said: “Here we have an elderly man from Jamaica who has been in the UK for over 18 years and has cancer, how could any decent human being not want him to get life saving treatment.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do not routinely comment on individual cases. All visa cases are considered according to their merits.”

There is a petition to let Lewin stay, which is available at chng.it/7pQJtrtN for anyone to sign in support.