AN ANDOVER father is appealing for help to keep his children in the country.

Dwayne Byrne is a South African national who has lived in Picket Twenty since 2015.

He has a fiancée named Samantha Coombs who has a daughter of her own.

The couple are due to get married in two weeks time, but a month after that, Dwayne may be forced to say goodbye to two of his children.

“It would be heartbreaking to lose them,” Dwayne told the Advertiser.

The two daughters live with Dwayne’s ex-wife - also a South African national - in Northamptonshire.

During the lockdown, Dwayne lost his job as a team leader in a warehouse due to a range of health issues. The two girls’ mum also lost her job during this period.

As of the September 24, both daughters and the mother are at risk or being deported back to South Africa if they can’t raise the money to afford an indefinite leave to remain visa.

Currently, the mother has raised enough money for her own visa, which means they now require a further £2,400 to pay for the children.

“We are doing this purely for the kids,” the 42-year-old father of four continued,

“Because of the distance it has between me and them, it has been hard.

“But if they stay, they will apparently be moving closer to me which will allow me to have a lot more contact with my daughters.

“It would be great to be able to help further those relationships.”

That is why Dwayne’s fiancée Samantha decided to set up a GoFundMe page to help try and raise the money the families need.

“Anyone who knows me knows I don’t ask for help,” she said.

“But my partner is very shortly going to lose his children, so I feel as a last resort it’s now time put aside my pride and hope that maybe you can help us.

“Both the girls’ mum and dad lost their jobs during the coronavirus outbreak and are struggling to raise the money, so as a last resort we are asking for help to save our children from having to leave the country, leave family, lose everything they know and love and also lose their father.”

When Dwayne found out his partner had started the page, he was blown away.

“I got to the point where I was just so frustrated by the situation that I couldn’t think,” he added.

“I was gobsmacked at how caring Samantha could be and I got quite emotional about it all.”

They added that to keep the girls in the country, they must personally raise at least £1201- which is half of the child’s visa fees.

Click here to view the GoFundMe page.