By Cheryl Wood

A BRIDE-TO-BE is facing her big day without her mother at her side as immigration officials have refused to let her enter the country.

Catherine Dunford (25) is due to wed fiance Hugh Martin (37) in a civil ceremony in St Andrews on December 6.

But unless appeals to the UK Border Agency are successful, her mother Shariwa Dunford (52) will not be there to see her take her vows.

Zimbabwe is in the grip of an economic crisis, with inflation at 231 million per cent, and its health service is collapsing.

Immigration officials reportedly told Catherine, a PhD student who lives with Hugh in Cupar, it believed the visiting visa application was a ploy to get her mother into Britain permanently, coinciding with the economic meltdown.

Shariwa is appealing against the decision and both the St Andrews University Student Association and rector Kevin Dunion have written to the Home Office agency on her behalf.

Time is running out for Catherine, whose father died of cancer and who hoped her mother would be flying in to join her on Friday.

She told The Courier, “In the last few days before my wedding I thought I would be stressing out about flowers, not something like this.

“I feel cheated that my mother, my only surviving parent, won’t be there.

“Aside from my disappointment, it’s knowing how disappointed my mother will be.

“It’s also upsetting that my mother may never meet my future in-laws.”

Over 100 guests are due to attend the ceremony in the university’s Lower College Hall.

Catherine, whose late father was British and moved to Africa in the 1950s, was born and brought up in Zimbabwe but has British citizenship.

She came to the UK in 1999 aged 16, studied and worked in London then embarked on an undergraduate course at St Andrews after falling in love with Scotland.

It was there she met Hugh, a former student from Dorset who now works in the university’s registration department, two years ago.

The couple have been planning their wedding for over a year and applied for her mother’s visa early.

Catherine said, “We tried to put in the best application possible. My mother was completely honest about everything, her life—her finances, everything they requested, and we did the same.

“My mother has never had any desire to live in Britain otherwise she would have come here with my father.”

Mr Dunion said, “It’s really quite an emotional predicament Catherine finds herself in. What should be a great day is going to be blighted by the fact her mother may not be present.”

Having read over Shariwa’s application carefully, Mr Dunion said the fact Catherine, her fiance and her sister, who also lives in UK, were able to support her financially had also worked against them, as immigration officials questioned why Shariwa would want to return home.

Catherine had also asked local MP Sir Menzies Campbell to intervene, but a spokesman in his office said yesterday he was considering the matter.

A Home Office spokesman said, “All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits against published criteria, looking at all available evidence and compassionate circumstances.

“Applicants will often have a right of appeal to the courts.”

The timescale for appeals, she said, would depend on the circumstances.