HEYAM Srour has cancer. She’s been told she may have around three months left, but doctors can’t really be sure.

Heyam’s Clydebank home lies under a flight path. The planes passing overhead are a reminder of the distance between her and four of her six daughters.

The family are Syrian refugees, and when the 53-year-old and her husband Abdo Mouhamad Al Salahani were brought to Scotland in 2016 as part of a UN resettlement programme, she travelled on the understanding that her children would follow.

That was four years ago. While two of Heyam’s girls are now here – Sara and Duaa – the others remain in Lebanon along with their young children, including some Heyam has never met.

Applications from all four women were originally rejected. Two of the sisters, Noura and Lina, have since won their cases, but the visas for them and their families haven’t been issued and so they can’t travel.

Meanwhile, siblings Douniya and Diana haven’t even received their appeal dates yet. For all four, the cases have been dragging on and on.

Heyam is in pain, mental and physical, and she’s plagued by fear that bureaucratic delays will mean she is not reunited with her family before it’s too late.

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“I love my children,” she says. “I’m just praying I get to see them before I die.”

Heyam’s ovarian cancer was diagnosed before war broke out in Syria and forced the family to flee. She was a stay-at-home mum then, while Abdo was a chef. She underwent surgery and chemotherapy and was cared for by her daughters. “It made the illness easier to deal with,” she says, “because I felt like I was receiving all the support and love that I could possibly have.”

Like 1.5 million other Syrians, the family crossed the border to Lebanon in search of safety. At 30%, the country has the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world, and pressures on daily life aren’t hard to find, with access to employment, education, healthcare and decent accommodation all beyond the reach of many displaced Syrians. There’s also the threat of deportation back to Syria – thousands have already been sent back.

When Heyam’s cancer became more aggressive in 2014, the family used all their savings, sold belongings and borrowed from relatives to pay for her treatment. Even an X-ray cost them $1400.

But the treatment they could afford wasn’t enough to hold back the cancer. In 2016 the UN called the family for an interview, based on urgent medical reports from the hospital where Heyam was being treated. “I told them that I did not want to leave without my family, my daughters,” she explains. “They advised me that I should think about my health and that they would assist me later to support my daughters coming to the UK. I agreed to this. I was desperate.

“As soon as we arrived, we started making enquiries on how to allow our daughters to come and join us in the UK. We applied through the UN, however, to date, we have not received any response.”

There was some progress when Duaa and her husband were also selected by the UN and resettled in Scotland in 2018.

Heyam and Abdo cannot understand why the others haven’t been allowed to follow.

Doctors have said Heyam’s cancer is genetic and her children should be monitored for symptoms. But that’s not possible in Lebanon and, as well as battling her own failing health, she fears for theirs. “I cannot travel to see them,” she says. “My condition is deteriorating every day.

“Before the war we were a happy, close family. Lebanon was not paradise, but at least we were together.

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“The reason I came here was for treatment but if I knew that the rest of my family wouldn’t join me, I would have never come to the UK, I would have stayed there. I don’t know any parent who wouldn’t want to stay with their children. I’m really, really struggling without them.”

Abdo doesn’t work as a chef any more; he spends his days caring for his wife. The love between them is palpable. He grows herbs and flowers in the garden, but some of the leaves are scattered with holes made by insects. Still, he keeps growing them.

“I can’t find the words to describe our situation,” he says. “My wife, this situation has badly affected her mental health and her moods are very, very low.

“It’s hell living without your children. My wife is seriously ill and it doesn’t look like there is a cure for her, and even doctors are praying that she could see her children and grandchildren. All we want is to be reunited so that my wife can have some quality time with them.”

The family is represented by the McGlashan Mackay legal firm.

Partner Euan Mackay said the Home Office “could have issued the visas” for Noura and Lina “quickly” after they won their appeals, and though the process has been further delayed by the closure of the UK’s Beirut visa centre that doesn’t explain the lengthy waits for appeal dates which, in the cases of Diana and Douniyaa, haven’t even been set. “There are many exceptional and compassionate circumstances for this family, as recognised by the court in their appeal,” he says.

“The Home Office’s own guidance states that each case will be decided on its own merits. This is a case which must be prioritised.”

Martin Docherty-Hughes, the family’s MP, has urged the Home Office to “show some compassion” and treat the case “as a matter of extreme urgency”. “My heart truly breaks for Heyam and her family during this very emotional and harrowing time,” he said. “I can only imagine how they are feeling and the distress that they are going through at the thought of not being together one last time.

“I’m sure they will be in everyone’s thoughts with the hope that this situation can be resolved quickly.

“My office has been in constant communication with the Home Office regarding the visas for Heyam’s daughters and despite the urgent and tragic circumstances, there has been little progress, which I find exasperating.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We sympathise with the family at this difficult time. The Home Office recognises the exceptional circumstances in this case and we are working to process the family’s visa applications as quickly as we can.

“We are in contact with the family as well as their local MP.”