A mother from Rochester, who is facing deportation despite calling Britain home for 53 years, hopes the new year will bring news that she is allowed to stay.

Eve Woods, of Leander Road, has been under threat of having to leave the UK and move back to South Africa since May.

She came to the UK from South Africa in 1962 with her mother and two siblings, travelling on her mother’s passport.

After three years in London, the family came to Medway where Eve grew up, got married and had three children.

The 58-year-old wanted to go back to work last year after her youngest son Shane turned 18, but after three months working as a carer her manager asked for proof she was allowed to work in the UK.

She applied to the Home Office for a permit to remain in the UK indefinitely, but she was refused. Eve then had a letter in May saying she was liable to be deported. She has now reapplied to stay in the UK, but the application process can take up to six months.

Eve said: “I have been in contact with MP Kelly Tolhurst’s office and they helped me send off the application.

“I’ve also had a lot of help from a solicitor. I’ve got paperwork that covers every year I’ve been here. If my application doesn’t get accepted I don’t know what they’ll want, or what I’ll do.

“I don’t know anything about South Africa and I certainly don’t know anyone there.”

Eve added that if her application was accepted it would be a huge relief for her family.

She said: “If it’s accepted I can go back to work, which is all I wanted to do in the first place.”

In her last application Eve included her National Insurance number, marriage certificates, and her sons’ birth certificates, but was told they were not enough.

In the new application Eve will include school reports and medical records which include immunisations from when she was of pre-school age.

Eve said: “I have searched my house again and gone through drawers and found a scrap of paper with my GCE results on.

“I’ve found a letter from my sister and some school reports. I just don’t know whether it will be enough.”