Offers of aid pour in for overstayer cancer victim

Juthamart Sommai - pictured with her children Dream (L) and Dale at their Glenfield home. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Offers of financial and medical aid are pouring in for a cancer-stricken Thai overstayer in need of urgent surgery.

Following a Herald report on Juthamart Sommai's plight, two surgeons - one from St Marks Breast Centre and another who wishes to remain anonymous - have offered to perform a mastectomy without charge.

Members of the local Thai community have also rallied to organise a fund-raising dinner this Saturday to help with her post-surgery care costs.

A Herald reader, who did not want to be named, said she felt compelled to help and will be sending a $200 cheque even though she had recently lost her job.

"Losing a job is tough, but I wouldn't wish on any young child to be losing a mother."

Promises of up to $1000 have also been made by other readers to help her meet her medical costs, said Rev Ian Woodman, an Anglo-Catholic priest who is helping Ms Sommai and her husband in their fight to stay in New Zealand.

"The support has been tremendous, and I am absolutely amazed at the level of generosity especially in these tough economic times," he said.

The organiser for the fund-raising dinner, Thai immigrant Phen Sapso, said friends were doing all they could to help.

"Not everyone has money, so they are putting their efforts in other ways to help," Mrs Sapso said. "As immigrants, we know how hard it can be for people to be in this situation in a foreign land."

Diagnosed with breast cancer last month, Ms Sommai, 42, is appealing to Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman to reverse a decision to deport her and her husband, Samkhan Phuathat, 39.

The mother of two New Zealand-born children, aged 2 and 5, became an overstayer after an immigration lawyer she engaged failed to submit her application to renew her work permit and vanished with her Thai passport and the $15,000 fee she paid.

Mr Phuathat said an immigration official had told him their passports had been returned to the department.

The Thai Embassy has issued temporary passports, but Ms Sommai said she was too sick to travel and needed to have surgery on Thursday.

"I am very worried, not for myself, but for my children growing up without a mother, and I really don't know how to thank everyone who has offered to help us in one way or another," she said.

A spokesman for Dr Coleman would not say if he would consider the appeal because Associate Immigration Minister Kate Wilkinson dealt with individual immigration cases and she had indicated she was not prepared to intervene.