Man 'overwhelmed' by support for his fight to be British

Nelson Shardey said he wanted to "thank all the people who have donated"

A retired 74-year-old Ghanaian man who has lived in the UK for nearly 50 years has said he has been left "speechless" by the generosity of strangers who have pledged funds to support his legal fight to stay in the country.

Nelson Shardey, from Wallasey in Wirral, has assumed he had been officially seen as British for many years, but in 2019, he was told he had no right to be in the country and needed to apply for the 10-year route to settlement.

His family have now taken legal action against the Home Office to try to establish his citizenship.

He said seeing almost £30,000 pledged to a crowdfunding appeal started by his son Jacob within days of its launch showed there were "good people in the community".

Mr Shardey, who ran Nelson’s News on Borough Road in Seacombe from 1991 until he retired, said he "didn't think we would get to this figure at all, so the fact we are there this quickly, thank you to everyone".

He said it had left him "more than overwhelmed".

"I am really happy," he added.

“The fact it took us hours to raise that money is really, really superb."

Mr Shardey (above right, with son Jacob) said the support showed there were "good people in the community"

He said Jacob showed him the updates "and I was saying ‘wow, wow, wow’".

"There are such good people who part with their money for a good cause like this," he said.

“I was really speechless and happy.

"There are good people in the community. I thank all the people who have donated."

His son Jacob said he had been shocked by how quickly the total had risen beyond the original target of £20,000.

"Once we hit the £1,000 figure in the first 20 minutes, I thought ‘this is mad... this is going to go crazy’," he said.

He added that if his father won his case, he would not face any legal costs, so the money would instead be donated to Wirral Foodbank and the Boaz Trust, a charity that supports homeless asylum seekers.

The Home Office has declined to comment on Mr Shardey's case.