The grandmother of a teenager who died from leukaemia could miss his funeral - because cruel Home Office officials have denied her a visa.
Ivy Powell, 67, planned to fly to the UK from Jamaica to pay her last respects to tragic Damary Dawkins.
Damary was just 13 when he died, and England footballer Raheem Sterling paid tribute to him when he scored at Wembley last month.
The tragic London teenager's funeral will be held next Friday.
Damary's mum Nadine told the Barking and Dagenham Post : "The application was made on April 4, and we found out on the 16th that it had been denied.
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“They said she doesn't have the savings to support herself.
“She's retired, she doesn't need to have savings."
She said that she and husband Tony, Damary's father, had sent a number of documents to the Home Office proving they would support her mum.
Nadine said the Home Office hadn't taken account of the reason for Damary's grandmother's visit.
A Home Office spokesman told Mirror Online: “We have reviewed this case in light of the compassionate circumstances and are attempting to make contact with Mrs Powell to discuss this further.”
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Damary was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), a form of blood cancer, in 2014 and passed away just six weeks after his 13th birthday, despite undergoing a stem cell transplant in the new year.
He had also been treated with chemotherapy before medics decided that a transplant was necessary.
England star Sterling had made an appeal for stem cell donors from his social media account last July and revealed a tribute to the youngster under his shirt having put his side 3-0 up at Wembley last month.
"Damary was a kid I was trying to help," Sterling said. "We thought we'd found a donor but sadly it didn't match and sadly he passed away.
"I wanted to give the family something to smile about."
Damary, who was a member of Crystal Palace's elite development squad, received the support of the Premier League club and Sterling in his bid to find a donor.
None of the youngster's family were a match, which reduced his chances of finding a donor considerably.
Around 69 per cent of patients can find a match from a stranger, a figure that drops to just 20 per cent for those from a black, Asian or ethnic minority background.
Therefore a campaign - #march4damary - was launched by the charity African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) to find a stem cell donor.
