Karen | A Mother's Plight

Karen Perry | Wife | Mother | Full-time carer.

Karen has been married to Marcus for 33 years, their marriage has seen two wonderful sons introduced to our world.

Karen is a valued member of a Care Group which cares for Adults with severe learning difficulties such as Autism and Downs Syndrome, near Middlesbrough, where she works tirelessly to help others, always prioritising other peoples needs over her own.

Karen is from Cape Town, South Africa. Her Grandfather moved there from Norfolk after his father had served in the Anglo Boer war as a blacksmith. It is where she met Marcus and love blossomed, and soon marriage bells rang. Karen and Marcus decided to move to the United Kingdom in 2006, so that Marcus could be nearer his Welsh family and their sons would have better education and career opportunities.

Marcus is a qualified electrical engineer who was sadly diagnosed with a brain tumour, due to the effects of his illness Marcus has been unable to work for the past 7 years but retrained as a lecturer and started to work again briefly. He relapsed about a year ago and has had to rely on Karen for support and care since.

It would have been easy for Karen to focus her full attention on her husband, his illness warranted it. However, Karen knew that her service users at the Care Center needed her too.

It was never in doubt, Karen decided to split her time between caring for her husband and continuing her support for her service users.

Sadly Karen now needs the support of others, the Home Office has decided that she is not entitled to or merits British Citizenship. The Home Office stated in their refusal letter that Karen had not proved proficiency in English even though she had passed the "Life in the UK Test" and was told that she wouldn't have to prove proficiency again. This was confirmed on the uk.gov website. After Karen sought assistance from her local MP, Alex Cunningham, the website was changed to reflect new conditions.

Without citizenship, Karen is left in a state of limbo. This cannot be right, so I ask you to please show your love and support for Karen by signing our petition.

Kind regards to all and thank you