THE husband of a critically ill young asylum seeker says they can’t live without each other.

May Brown, aged 19, is in a coma after she attempted to kill herself following the rejection of her application to stay in the UK.

May’s husband Michael said they are ‘stuck in limbo’ as they wait to see if May will survive.

She is facing ‘administrative removal’ after her claim to stay in the UK was refused by the Border Agency.

The Weymouth College student came here aged 16 after seeing her father murdered and being subjected to sexual abuse in her home country.

She met and married Michael Brown, a former soldier from Weymouth, and the two planned a life together.

But May was told she would have to return to Nigeria on a flight booked for tomorrow.

Her fear of being murdered by those who killed her father was so great that on Monday she decided to take her own life.

She was discovered by her mother-in-law and rushed to Dorset County Hospital, where she remains in a critical condition.

Speaking to the Echo days before her suicide bid, she described meeting Michael, 34, in Dusk nightclub on the Esplanade as like ‘meeting an angel who saved me.’ Michael said that officials allegedly told the couple they had ‘no emotional attachment’ and the marriage was a sham.

But speaking out, he said: “May is the most beautiful, kindest, loving person I have ever met. I can’t live with myself if anything happens to her.

“She is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with and you can’t pretend something like that.

“All we want is a life together. But I’m so angry that is being taken away from us.”

He added: “I just thank God I asked my dad to come and pick her up before I went to work on Monday morning. If I hadn’t, she would be dead. I can’t live if she is taken away from me.”

Michael’s mother Helen-Claire, aged 59, said: “What kind of world do we live in when a 19-year-old girl who has been through so much already feels she has no other choice but to kill herself?

“If May has to go back to Nigeria this isn’t just going to affect Michael, it’s going to affect the whole family.

“She has been through so much already and she had no one.

“And now she has finally found Michael and this happens.

“I don’t know how they can say this marriage is a sham.

“I remember Michael phoning me after he met May and saying ‘mum, this is the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with. They need each other. What harm is she doing?

“All she wants is to work hard, make a life with her husband and live happily like she deserves.”

Support has poured in since May’s story was told in yesterday’s Echo.

May’s family have thanked well-wishers and the staff at Dorset County Hospital who are looking after her.

In light of events, removal directions for Thursday have been cancelled, but May’s solicitors are still battling to overturn the decision that she must leave.

A Home Office spokesperson said they could not comment.

Dorset South MP Richard Drax said he was ‘very concerned’ to hear of May Brown’s suicide attempt.

He added: “My sympathies go out to Mrs Brown and her family.

“I will be speaking to Michael Brown to see what, if anything, I can do.”

newdesk@dorsetecho.co.uk