A pensioner who was left languishing in a Dubai hospital following a stroke has finally been welcomed home.
Malcolm Munroe, originally from Chorlton, Manchester, has spent more than four years at Rashid Hospital after falling ill while away on business.
His desperate family was told he faced a hefty prison term after his company crashed while he was sick in hospital.
His sister, wife and children have spent years grappling with Dubai authorities in a desperate bid to bring him home as he lay critically-ill and alone. Their efforts have finally paid off.
Mr Munroe has now returned to the UK thanks to a kind-hearted Manchester medic.
Malcolm Munroe, originally from Chorlton, Manchester, has spent more than four years at Rashid Hospital after falling ill while away on business
When his wife Olga was diagnosed with leukaemia, the family moved back to Eccles so she could undergo treatment at The Christie, which was successful
His sister, wife and children have spent years grappling with Dubai authorities in a desperate bid to bring him home as he lay critically-ill and alone
His sister, Diane Kirkwood, said: ‘No matter how many times we say thank you it would never be enough to everybody who has helped to get our loving brother home to his beloved Manchester.
Father-of-two Mr Munroe moved to the middle east in the 1980s and set up hisown firm.
But when his wife Olga was diagnosed with leukaemia, the family moved back to Eccles so she could undergo treatment at The Christie, which was successful.
Mr Munroe returned to Dubai for business and while there in 2013, suffered a massive stroke and was rushed to the Rashid Hospital.
The bed bound pensioner’s construction company crashed in the wake of his illness and creditors demanded payment.
Mrs Kirkwood says the Dubai government closed his company and in 2014 severalcreditors came forward to bring cases against him.
Mr Munroe married his Ukrainian wife Olga (right) while in Dubai and the couple have two sons, Alexandre and Paul (left)
After a court case in Dubai, he was handed a three-year jail term over the unpaid debts.
But his family said he would never be able to serve his sentence as he can barely move his head, is fed through a tube and is connected to an oxygen tank.
The Foreign Office advised Mrs Kirkwood and her husband David, that they could not guarantee they would be able to passthrough passport control without being stopped.
To make matters worse Mr Munroe was separated from his sons Alexandre and Paul, who both live in the UK with Olga.
Friends raised thousands of pounds to fly Mr Munroe back to the UK fortreatment, but his family struggled to convince Dubai authorities to release him.
Mrs Kirkwood and her husband David appealed to MPs, the Foreign Office, the UKEmbassy in Dubai and even Prince Charles in a bid to help her brother.
And they called on anyone with legal expertise to help the family to repatriate Mr Munroe so he could be rehabilitated in the UK.
Their calls for help were finally answered by an English woman who volunteers at Rashid Hospital.
She spent a year visiting the companies Mr Munroe owed money to in order to explain his situation.
To make matters worse Mr Munroe was separated from his sons Alexandre and Paul, who both live in the UK with Olga
Mrs Kirkwood said: ‘She laboured on until all cases were closed which, was in December of last year.’
In the meantime Manchester medic John Dunn contacted the family to offer his services and flew over to Dubai to bring the pensioner back home on a special flight.
Mrs Kirkwood said she was shocked to see her brother’s condition when he returned to the UK. But she says he has since made huge progress and thanks to doctors at Salford Royal Hospital.
‘He has physio three times a week, a dietician is evaluating his needs and he has already shown improvement,’ Mrs Kirkwood says.
‘We believe Salford Royal will get him to a point which they believe is the best he will ever be. We can never ever thank them enough for what they
have already done and what they will be doing.
‘We would also like to say a big thank you to John Dunn who came forward last year to help. He is a glowing example to the wonderful NHS training and he went far beyond his call of duty to help get Malcolm back home to the Manchester, which he did with no charge.’
Mrs Kirkwood also thanked Worsley and Eccles MP Barbara Keeley, ‘Showmed’ who provided an ambulance and driver and Emirates Air Lines in Dubai.