• May Brown fled  Nigeria after witnessing father’s murder
• She married  Michael Brown in Dorset and wanted to be a lawyer
• Border officials  say the marriage is bogus

An asylum seeker who is married to a British  man is fighting for her life in hospital after an overdose  just days  before she was due to be sent back to Nigeria.

May Brown, a 19-year-old college student,  fled to Britain from her home country three years ago after witnessing her father’s murder and being subjected to sexual abuse.

She settled in Weymouth, Dorset, where she  met her husband, Michael Brown, 12 months ago and the couple married last  December.

Mrs Brown, who was a games maker at last summer’s Olympics and has two university offers to study law, applied to stay in  the UK but despite her marriage her application was rejected.

Asylum seeker May Brown (right) is fighting for her life  in hospital after an overdose days before she was due to be sent back to  Nigeria. Border officials say her marriage to Michael (left) is a  ‘sham’

Mr Brown, 34, said UK Border Agency officials  believe their marriage to be a ‘sham’ with no ’emotional  attachment’.

His wife was told she would be flown back to  Nigeria tomorrow.

She was so distressed at the prospect of  returning to her home country she took an overdose of medication.

Her mother-in-law, Helen-Claire Brown, found  her collapsed on the bathroom floor on Monday morning with a note to her husband  saying she ‘couldn’t live without him’.

The teenager was rushed to the Dorset County  Hospital in Dorchester where she remains in a coma in intensive care.

Happy day: The couple on their wedding day. Miss Brown  wrote that she couldn’t live without her husband

May wrote: ‘I am deeply sorry that I had to  go this way, without even saying goodbye.

‘The UK immigration has finally driven me  insane. They’ve pushed me too far this time and I can’t take the pain any  more.

‘I don’t want a life or a future you won’t be  part of. I love you so much, more than life itself and can’t endure the agony of  not being with you.

‘Please forgive me for ending it this way.  It’s better to die with my dignity than be subjected to torture and undignified  death back in Nigeria.’

Before she took the overdose, May had said  she feared her abusers would kill her if she returned to the African country  because she witnessed her father’s death.

Helen-Claire Brown, Miss Brown’s mother-in-law, said the  19-year-old is part of the family and blasted border officials as  ‘heartless’

She said: ‘If they send me back to Nigeria  they are signing my death warrant, they will cut my life short because I will be  killed.

‘I have found peace with Michael, he gave me  a reason to live. I have got a family here and we don’t claim any  benefits.

‘Michael works and I am studying to become a  barrister, we have not harmed anybody.’

Mr Brown, a former soldier who now works for  a removals company, insisted the couple’s marriage was genuine and slammed the  UK Border Agency for its treatment of his wife.

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.’

Mother-in-law Helen-Claire, 59, added: ‘May  is a part of our family and the way the immigration service has treated her is  so, so wrong and heartless.

‘She came here on a student visa and has  applied for asylum because she fears for her life if she goes back.

‘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?’

Miss Brown is studying public affairs at  Weymouth College and hopes to go to university and become a  barrister.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We cannot  comment in detail on this case while legal proceedings are ongoing.

‘In cases where people are found to have no  right to remain in the UK they should leave voluntarily or face  removal.’

• For  confidential support in the UK call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90,  visit a  local Samaritans branch, or see www.samaritans.org for  details

Read more: Mail Online