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       #Post#: 13--------------------------------------------------
       Adoption offer for Sumani orphans
       By: Montraviatommygun Date: February 28, 2011, 2:36 am
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  HTML http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7313284.stm
       Adoption offer for Sumani orphans
       The son and daughter of Ama Sumani, the Ghanaian woman who died
       of cancer after being removed from the UK, have been offered
       adoption by a Welsh family.
       The offer, from an unnamed couple in north Wales, has been
       discussed with Ms Sumani's family in Ghana, and a lawyer is
       looking into how it might work.
       Friend Janet Symmons said she hoped the children, aged 16 and
       seven, would start school in Wales in September.
       She said a Cardiff benefit concert for the youngsters had been a
       success.
       The children were orphaned when their widowed mother died last
       week in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, after being removed from
       Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales in January.
       Ms Sumani, 39, who was suffering from malignant myeloma, had
       been receiving dialysis treatment at the hospital but was flown
       back to her home country by immigration officers because she was
       working, in breach of her visa regulations.
       More than £70,000 was raised from public donations to help her
       have treatment in Ghana but the drug she needed to prolong her
       life - thalidomide - is not available in the country.
       The money raised is going to help her children, Mary, 16 and
       seven-year-old Samede.
       Mrs Symmons, who led the campaigning on behalf of her late
       friend, returned from Ghana on Sunday.
       She said the youngsters, particularly Mary, had taken the news
       of their mother's death "very badly".
       Mary, who attends a boarding school and was sitting her exams,
       did not learn of her mother's death until Good Friday.
       Mrs Symmons said: "She came home for the Easter break and to see
       her mother and that's when they told her."
       She added that she had used her visit to discuss with Ms
       Sumani's brother the offer she had received from a couple in
       north Wales to adopt the brother and sister and bring them to
       the UK.
       She said: "I have got it in writing that a couple are willing to
       adopt to the children.
       "We've even been to see a solicitor and we've checked to see if
       they will be accepted here if it's done by law in Ghana.
       "I'm delighted. If it goes through, they [Mary and Samede] would
       move to north Wales.
       "The woman has spoken to the daughter and explained to her that
       she is not trying to take her mother's place, that she's trying
       to protect and provide for them."
       Funeral
       She added: "They would have preferred to have their own mother.
       At the moment they are vulnerable, especially the girl."
       Mrs Symmons, who runs the Xquisite Africa shop on City Road in
       Cardiff, added a post mortem examination on Ms Sumani was due on
       Friday and her friend's funeral was planned for 25 April.
       She said: "I was going to go back this week to bring her back.
       It's very sad, just when everything was coming together."
       She said a fundraising concert at Cardiff's Clwb Ifor Bach on
       Sunday had been a sell out, raising around £500 for the
       children's benefit.
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