A woman from Zimbabwe who faced deportation has been given the perfect festive gift - a British passport.

Marjory Cook, 48, won a lengthy battle with the Home Office to be allowed to stay in Sussex with her English husband Dave.

The news brought an end to years of fear and uncertainty for the pair, who married in 2002.

Mrs Cook, of Emerald Quay, Shoreham, was forced to visit deportation centres several times in the past six months. Each time she had no idea whether she would be allowed to return to her husband.

She finally picked up her passport on December 16 and the couple have just spent their first Christmas together without the threat of being forced apart.

Mrs Cook said: "This has been such a long struggle for us and now we can just enjoy life. It will be so nice not to have this hanging over my head."

Mrs Cook is ready to return to her job as a support worker for people with learning difficulties with Brighton and Hove City Council.

She came to England in 2000 to visit family and married Dave in 2003.

The Home Office would not recognise their marriage as legal because it happened after her temporary visa expired.

Mr Cook said: "It has been such a rocky ride over the years and particularly over the past few months where there was a real fear they would not let Marjory home from the deportation centres." Celia Barlow, Labour MP for Hove, who fought the case alongside many other supporters, described the news as a victory for true love.

Mrs Cook has lived in constant fear of being forcibly returned to Zimbabwe where she says she could be killed because she is a member of the Movement For Democratic Change, which opposes the regime of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

She says her uncle was killed in June by Mugabe's henchmen and remaining family in Zimbabwe are in hiding.