Jacob Shardey and Aaron Shardey, sons of a Ghanaian man being chased out of the United Kingdom after 42 years of living in the country, have taken steps to ensure their father's stay is regularized.

Nelson Shardey's story was reported weeks back by the BBC, attracting lots of reactions online because the UK authorities were demanding that the retiree leave the country he had spent his entire adult life in.

His sons set up a GoFundMe page seeking support to help them cover legal costs for their father's fight with the UK Home Office.

The page, at last check, had exceeded the £20,000 target, hitting £47,041.

"We are crowdfunding for help with our legal challenge against the Home Office over their unfair treatment of our Dad, Nelson Shardey.

"You might not have met our Dad, Nelson Shardey, in person, but his urgent story is one we’d love you to take a few minutes of your time to read and support if you can.

"Nelson is 75 and has lived in the UK since 1977," they wrote about their father, detailing his impact on UK communities he has lived in since his arrival as a student from Ghana.

They also detailed the legal processes they are pushing through to ensure their father's rights are respected.

Nelson Shardey, from Wallasey in Wirral, had for many years assumed he was officially seen as British.

He only discovered otherwise in 2019 and, despite paying taxes all his adult life, now faces paying thousands of pounds to stay and use the NHS.

Aside from being a newspaper vendor taking other jobs, Shardey has performed jury service, and in 2007 was given a police award for bravery after tackling a robber who was attacking a delivery man with a baseball bat.

But in 2019, when he applied for a passport so he could go back to Ghana following the death of his mother, he was told he was not British.

The Home Office said he had no right to be in the UK.

He married a British woman and moved to Wallasey to run his own business, a newsagent called Nelson's News.

When that marriage ended, he married another British woman, and they had two sons, Jacob and Aaron.

Brothers post an update on dad's case:

In a May 16, 2024, update to the petition titled "Justice for Nelson: Home Office vs. Our Dad," the brothers wrote:

"Hi everyone, today was an opportunity for us to tell our story, get resolve for our Dad, and highlight a broken system. One of our biggest concerns about taking legal action was 'what would happen if we lose and we don’t have the funds to pay Home Office’s legal fees?'.

"Today has been an absolute whirlwind of emotions. We are so overwhelmed and incredibly grateful for all of your kindness and support.

"Anything else that is donated will go towards legal costs we incur if we lose our case against the Home Office and to the chosen charities. If we win, it will all go to the chosen charities.

"Thank you all so much."

SARA