Yousra Alamgir and her husband Shaifi Moazzem may have to leave Australia in just over a month even as Ms Alamgir is fighting breast cancer which is at an advanced stage.
The international student from Bangladesh was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer in July last year, which, besides her health, has put the couple's prospects of becoming a permanent resident of Australia in jeopardy.
Ms Alamgir came to Australia in 2014 on a student visa and is currently pursuing a masters degree in accounting at Melbourne’s RMIT University. Mr Moazzem is with her on a spouse visa. But their visas would soon run out and the couple is worried about Ms Alamgir’s chances of survival if they are forced to return to Bangladesh.
“I’m having a good treatment. I trust them, I believe in them and – most importantly – I feel like things are improving so I don’t want to change it,” she said.
She says Bangladesh doesn’t have the medical expertise and facilities that are required in order to deal with her the advanced stage cancer she has.
Mr Moazzem, who represented Bangladesh as a junior cricketer, is currently working as a sports turf curator with a company responsible for maintaining a number of sporting facilities in Melbourne. He says despite his wife’s treatment being covered by her insurance, her medical condition and the out of pocket expenses associated with it are a tricky impediment to their visa.
“There is this chance that we may not be able to meet the health criterion that the immigration has and they can refuse to give us visa because of that," Mr Moazzem told SBS Punjabi.
"At the moment I am talking to my lawyer about the visa options and hoping that we are able to stay here and get a good positive outcome," he told SBS Punjabi.
When Mr Moazzen shared the news of his wife’s condition and their struggle resulting from this with his teammates at Footscray-Edgewater Cricket Club where he regularly plays, his mates there raised $8,000 through online fundraising to help the couple.
"Without the support of a family, this thing could be very hard. But the lads actually gave me a lot of strength to go through this. They are very, very caring," Mr Moazzem said about his teammates.
The club is also organising a T20 match on Sunday to raise more funds to meet the legal expenses as the couple prepares to file an application to have the healthcare cost threshold associated with the visa waived off.
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