Tess Henry, 41, of Swan Grove, Exning, is entitled to British Citizenship but has been refused leave to stay three times.

Despite being originally informed that she could sort out her application while living in Britain, Tess, who has spent most of her adult life living and working in Australia, is now being told to quit the UK and leave her sick mother behind.

"She is my mum and I am her only daughter," said Tess, who went to school in Newmarket and Bury St Edmunds and is a registered nurse having trained at Newmarket Hospital.

"It is inhumane to tell me I have to leave and go back to Australia to sort all this out. It could take months and that may be time my mum doesn't have.

"She is absolutely exhausted and she is fighting for her life. Why should she have to cope with this too when I have been told I have a right to be here and be with her?"

Born at a United States Air Force base in Turkey to an English mother and American father, Tess came to England with her brother at the age of five when her parents divorced.

They lived under permanent resident status until they were legally entitled to be registered as British citizens in the mid-1970s.

Tess's mother, Jennifer, now 63, made the appropriate applications through a local solicitor, who applied and then retained the registration certificates for "safe keeping".

"My mother saw the documents but never took possession of them and they have since been lost. The immigration authority denies having any record of them," said Tess.

She left the country for the first time when she was 21, travelling on a working holiday to Australia using her US passport, courtesy of her father.

There, she met her husband-to-be and the couple returned to England in 1992 for their wedding.

When the marriage broke down eight years ago, Tess decided to stay in Australia, where the couple had set up home.

But in July 2006, when she came home for her grandmother's funeral, her mother was very ill and she realised she would have to return home permanently.

Tess resigned from her job, packed up her home in Perth and flew home in November 2006.

In January last year, she applied to register as a UK citizen but was told she did not qualify because her mother was born in South Africa and had acquired her citizenship through her British father who was serving with the RAF.

An immigration lawyer took up her case but her application was rejected as was one made for leave to stay on ancestral grounds.

Then in December last year, Tess's mum was diagnosed with lung cancer and now relies on her to take her for chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment.

Tess's MP Richard Spring has taken up her case and written to the director of the Board of Immigration.

A spokesman for the UK Border and Immigration Agency said it could not comment on individual cases but in a letter to Tess said: "You have no right to stay in the United Kingdom so are liable to be removed."

To add your support to Tess' case, add a comment below.