MORE than £14,500 has been donated to a Merseyside cancer charity by a “local legend” as he redistributes the funds raised for a legal case against the Home Office. Clatterbridge Cancer Charity is one of three charities receiving the funds alongside the Boaz Trust and Wirral Foodbank.
Nelson Shardey, 75, ran Nelson’s News on Borough Road in Seacombe for 31 years from 1991 to 2022 but has lived in the UK since November 1977. He considered himself a British citizen, paid taxes, and worked hard but in 2019, he was told he didn’t have official leave to remain in the UK.
This started a long legal battle to get Nelson indefinite leave to remain with the family expecting to go to court later this year. During this time he also underwent treatment for prostate cancer. If the family had lost the case, they would have had to pay off the Home Office’s legal fees as well as spend thousands to restart a 10 year route to settlement.
After the LDRS, the Guardian and the BBC reported on the story in May, there was widespread anger and thousands raised to support their legal effort. The family said Wallasey MP Dame Angela Eagle also wrote a letter to the Home Office in May arguing the case was unacceptable.
The family’s fundraiser broke its £20,000 target in a day and raised more than £47,000. However the Home Office dropped the case meaning the money is now being distributed to three charities close to Nelson’s heart.
Anthony Jones, community fundraising manager for Clatterbridge said: “We are delighted with the amount of money the family has donated to the charity. I know it’s something very special to Nelson who was treated at our Wirral centre.
“The support is amazing. It’s such a lovely story with Nelson and everything that led up to this. We are just overjoyed”
He said one of the main things the charity funds is research into cancer treatment including a possible cancer vaccine. He said: ”Nelson is giving us the chance to help local people who have cancer in the future and hopefully get to the point that a lot of cancers will be a lot more treatable and less intrusive,” adding: “It will absolutely help future generations across Merseyside and Cheshire.”
He said the family will be recognised for their donation on a dove sculpture in the charity’s Winter Garden, adding: “It’s just lovely in the way things go full circle sometimes. Somebody who was treated and he and his family are grateful for that and they have then been able to help us in this way.”
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