A retired shopkeeper and recipient of a police bravery award who has been living in the UK since 1977 has been told he can stay, after initially being told he is not a British citizen.

74-year-old Nelson Shardey, from Wirral, has lived in the UK since 1977 after arriving on a student visa. However, the Ghana-born retiree was told he had no right to live in the UK after applying for a passport in 2019.

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A coup in Ghana prevented Shardey's family from paying his fees upon his arrival in the UK. As no one had ever questioned Shardey's right to work in the UK, he worked various jobs including making bread and Kipling Cakes near Southampton and Bendick's Chocolate in Winchester.

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Shardey then married a British woman before moving to Wirral to open his own newsagent called Nelson's News. After the end of his first marriage, he went on to marry another British woman with whom he had two sons.

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Shardey was even given a police award for bravery in 2007 after tackling a thief who had assaulted a delivery man with a baseball bat. Shardey never left the UK, claiming he saw no need as it was now his home. However, things took a turn in 2019 when his mother passed away in Ghana.

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This prompted him to apply for a passport hoping to return to Ghana, but he was told he was not a British citizen. Instead, officials instructed Shardey to apply for the lengthy ten-year settlement route which would cost around £7,000, and an additional £10,500 for access to the NHS.

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More than £48,000 was raised towards Shardey's cause in contribution to his legal fees. Shardey's case against the Home Office argued that there should be an exception due to his long residence in the UK, his bravery award, and his dedicated service to the community.

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Fortunately, the Home Office claimed the Immigration Act allowed them to grant Shardey an indefinite exception from the normal immigration rules The Home Office also waived the application fees issued to Shardey. After news broke of his right to remain in the UK, Shardey stated he was "overwhelmed, very very happy and relieved".

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He continued: "I would like to thank everybody who believed in us and supported us in words and donations," Although Shardey has overcome his own personal immigration "battle", he has stated that he and his supporters will continue to fight against the 10-year immigration route, saying: "the 10-year route is inhuman and abolish it or shorten it".