Cancer-treatment mother dies after deportation

A terminally ill woman who was deported from Britain while undergoing treatment for cancer has died, it was reported today.

Mother-of-two Ama Sumani, 39, suffers from malignant myeloma and was receiving dialysis at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, when she was deported to Ghana last month because her UK visa had expired.

Friends campaigned for her to be allowed back to Wales to continue dialysis because she was unable to afford treatment in Ghana.

After news of the woman's plight spread, an anonymous donation came in which allowed Ms Sumani to receive limited treatment in her home country.

The BBC reports she passed away in Accra, Ghana, just hours after being told that friends and family had found doctors in the UK and South Africa to treat her.

The broadcaster said she died at around 4pm GMT yesterday in Korle-Bu hospital in Accra.

She had been receiving kidney dialysis and treatment there after immigration officials removed her from the University Hospital of Wales in January.

The treatment in Ghana enabled her to have dialysis for her kidneys, which have been damaged by cancer. But the drug she needed to prolong her life, Thalidomide, is not available in her home country.

Her friend Janet Simmons, from Cardiff, told the BBC: "She said she was too tired to fight."

Mrs Simmons, who returned from spending a month in Ghana on Sunday, said they had just found a doctor in South Africa and another in the UK who would treat Ms Sumani with the drugs.

"We told her this morning but this afternoon she gave up," she told the broadcaster.

"The British people kept her alive all this time and we would like to thank them for their donations,

"I last saw her on Saturday morning before I left Ghana. She was not 100 per cent. She asked me 'are you taking me with you?' and I had to say no."

Tens of thousands of pounds were raised for her in the UK, with actress Trudie Styler, wife of rock star Sting, reportedly donating.

The decision to deport Ms Sumani was described as "atrocious barbarism" by leading British medical journal The Lancet.