A campaign has been launched in support of a GP trainee facing the deportation of her children following the tragic loss of her husband.

Dr Nermine Mounir Riad Abdelazim was on the GP training scheme in North Staffordshire together with her late husband Dr Walid Mahmoud. Dr Mahmoud died from a sudden cardiac arrest earlier this month. The couple came from Egypt with two children in 2016 and were expecting to gain indefinite leave to remain next year following the completion of their training.

Now 19 members of the committee of North Staffordshire Local Medical Committee have written to Home Secretary Suella Braverman appealing to her to intervene to disentangle the consequences of Dr Mahmoud’s passing.

Dr Abdelazim said that the two children had entered the UK on her husband’s visa, not hers. The family expected them to be awarded leave to remain alongside Dr Mahmoud. Both doctors were in the final year of the North Staffordshire Vocational Training Scheme. The children are now 13 and 18 but will have to wait two years to gain indefinite leave to remain under their mother’s visa. The family will also face significant additional costs in achieving the transfer, the LMC warned.

Dr Abdelazim told our reporter: “The children have only visited Egypt once since we came here so they consider the UK their home – as they have been raised here. My husband’s sudden death changes everything.”

The LMC warns that the doctor may be forced to return to Egypt if she cannot keep her children in the UK.
In its letter to Braverman it states: “Dr Abdelazim is greatly struggling emotionally, financially and is extremely stressed about their visa extension.” It says the trainee has thousands of pounds in debts.

The LMC members add: “It would be extremely sad to lose a GP at a time when the NHS is going through crisis and desperately needs doctors. The children have spent most of their formative years in the UK, so it would be a big cultural shock for them to have to return to Egypt in an environment they do not remember.”