Travel plea to attend funeral of mum Lissa gets a ‘no’
SON DESPERATE TO SAY FINAL GOODBYE BUT AUSTRALIAN COVID RULES AND COST OF GETTING BACK ARE PROBLEM
A SON has been left devastated after an application to come home from Australia for his mum’s funeral was rejected.
Joshua Knopik has been fundraising to get back to Burton from Perth, Western Australia, so he can say his goodbyes at the funeral of Lissa King.
New Look supervisor Miss King was just 53 when she died earlier this month, not long after being told she had breast cancer.
At the beginning of the week, the mum-of-five had celebrated her birthday surrounded by 13 members of her family in Looe, Cornwall, but she took a turn for the worse and died on her way to A&E at Burton’s Queen’s Hospital.
Mr Knopik moved to Australia 10 years ago but, because of Covid, there are limits on who is allowed in and out of the country.
The 30-year-old, who works in maintenance in the mines in Perth, does not have the thousands of pounds needed to pay for the flights and isolate in a hotel demanded by Covid restrictions in Australia.
He has been left devastated after his exemption request to leave Australia was rejected. That means that if he leaves the country, he will not be allowed to return. If he did decide to leave, a one-way flight would cost 11,000 Australian dollars (£5,829).
Mr Knopik said: “I just want to get home and say my final goodbyes and be able to return to my partner in Australia but the government here recently declined me a travel exemption to leave and re-enter the country.
“That means I’d have to choose between either being with my family in England for the funeral or being able to return to my family here in Australia. It’s a horrible decision and place to be put in when you are grieving.”
His sister, Georgia, said: “It’s not looking positive at all. We’re devastated for Joshua more than anything – he needs to get some closure from the whole situation.
“We’re all grieving here and he is isolated over there. All my dad wants is to be around all his children. It’s not nice.”
Mr Knopik is getting lawyers involved in the hope of changing the decision so he can be with his family.
The funeral is on October 8. Miss Knopik says the family have done everything asked of them by the Australian government, including sending over the death certificate and getting the funeral directors to confirm the arrangements for her funeral. She said: “All we can do is keep fighting. We’ve got time at the moment to find a way for him to be able to come home.”
Miss King, a supervisor at New Look in Coopers Square, Burton, was diagnosed with breast cancer just two-and-a-half months ago. Two weeks later she found it had spread to her liver and that it was terminal. Her health deteriorated on Saturday, September 4, and she was rushed to A&E after she said she had no energy. The family had hoped she would be given some antibiotics and she would feel better so they could have more precious time together.
Georgia took her to hospital with her partner Oliver Ward and brother Callum but Lissa died as she was being pushed into A&E in a wheelchair. The family were told complications from her illness caused an infection to starve her of oxygen and she suffered a heart attack.
Georgia’s grandmother and Lissa’s mum died from the illness, while two of Lissa’s sisters have also been given the same diagnosis.
The family has set up a GoFundMe page to raise the money needed to cover the cost of getting Joshua home if his exemption is granted.
All we can do is keep fighting. We’ve got time to find a way for him to be able to come home. Georgia Knopik, Joshua’s sister