https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6207539/Mother-IVF-weeks-live-tell-children-orphans.html#article-6207539

Heading news today – and rightly so… Mother has weeks to live and has to tell children they will be orphans Samantha McConnell, of Lincoln, has weeks to live after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. In a heartbreaking…[Read more]

I have just read about this in The Sun and read now in the below in the comments from Skip that she has won the reverse decision, I truly hope this is so ….as she has served our country for many years and now in her time of need she needs to be able to spend the rest of her precious time with her children not worrying about their financial…[Read more]

She Won the Defence Secretary reverse decision.
Thanks you all for your Support.
Sammi hopefully will know have peace of mind knowing her children will have financial security for the future.

This is absolutely shocking x

I find it absolutely shocking that these poor children are being denied the last thing their mummy can provide for them AND a dying mother is having to fight this battle when she deserves to spend her final days making memories for her babies.

Outrageous and heartbreaking, this is Sam’s money! Her children deserve and need this

Sammi’s children will have suffered enough, to deny the pension as financial assistance to them is truly unjust.

This is simply wrong! An outdated and unfair system which doesn’t reflect modern living. This needs to be changed NOW!

It’s not right to deny her children the pension that is rightly theirs.

This is totally unjust. If someone has paid into a pension for 20 years, and presumably paid a widowers’/dependents’ contribution, then the kids should be entitled to her pension regardless of when they were born. How ridiculous. She should at least be given the comfort of knowing that she has provided financially for her children.

This whole situation leaves me so angry!! It is so unjust and archaic that AFPS should even consider denying this Officer’s children survivor rights. Irrespective of what any clause in the pension booklet says, someone with a bit of common sense should revoke this and get new rules weitten asap!! The money is hers, should go to her estate and her…[Read more]

This seems to be discriminatory on the basis of gender as a protected characteristic – while the armed forces have some exemptions from the Equality Act 2010, these are related to ensuring ‘combat effectiveness’ not saving money…

This is absolutely amoral, let’s hope we can get this in front of the Defence Sec to approach the Treasury to rectify this terrible injustice BEFORE Sammi is no longer with us.

This is so manifestly unjust I can only believe that the military did not anticipate these circumstances. I hope my faith in the MOD will be vindicated by a swift and decisive move in Sam, Grace and Rory’s favour.

This is so unfair. Her children should be entitled to her pension!

You work to provide for your children’s future … what happens when you have paid into the pot and that future is ripped away from you? What insurance do you have to bequeath this to your family?

Sam delayed motherhood so she could continue to serve her country and is now being penalised because she decided not to marry and have 2 children via IVF (Sperm Donor) after she had retired from service. This archaic law has no place in modern society. If she hadn’t been given this devastating news about the cancer then she would be continuing to…[Read more]

The children deserve a secute future in what will be an uncertain world for them