Hello,
My name is Adam and I am a UK citizen but have lived as an expat in Sydney Australia for past 5 years.
I have a fiancé who I met here and she is too originally from UK. We are expecting our first child (boy) in August 2021 so we are only a few weeks away.
Earlier this year I found out that my father, who I am extremely close with and still lives in London, has lung cancer. During the last few months he has been extremely positive and gone through all the chemo and radiotherapy rounds. We all thought it was going almost too easy and with no side effects everything looked extremely positive with nothing to worry about. Until a couple of weeks ago he started complaining of terrible headaches, vomiting uncontrollably and unsteady on feet. Rushed to hospital and told it was just the effects of his treatments, sent home with paracetamol. After a few more days of same symptoms he was rushed to hospital again by my family and this time having done a further brain scan (which they should of done last time) he has been diagnosed with Brain metastasis with many lesions now present. He has since deteriorated badly and is on lots of morphine with outlook looking grim.
I am utterly devestated with an overwhelming sense of guilt that I have been living so far away and also not presently there to support him. My two sisters and mum have been taking in turns to see him but he has slipped into depression. He lacks interest in anything and mostly sleeps as on pain meds.
I want to fly over to see him for what will be a final goodbye but with the current travel restrictions due to covid it is making it extremely hard. I can travel to UK no problem but to get back I need a compassionate travel exemption. Should I be granted this I then need to find a flight that would take me back to Australia after a week so I can support my fiancé in the birth and see my son being born. As there is a inbound passenger cap many peoples flights are being cancelled and thousands are still waiting to come back to Australia, some waiting months!
Therefore, it seems it has boiled down to me having to make a decision on wether to fly home to see my father one last time, potentially not returning to Australia for months, or staying here to support my fiancé in the birth of our son. I should point out that she has no family over here and has been battling with mental health problems so its imperative I am here. But also equally important I see my dad one last time as we have been so close.
Any advice would be hige help in what is an impossible decision to make.