Terminal cancer stole Eric Scanlan’s speech and mobility and left him with tumours covering his head and neck.

Now, the British man and his Canadian wife are battling the federal government over a deportation order while spending their last days together in a motor home near Victoria.

Scanlan was diagnosed with cancer three years ago in Great Britain, where he received much of his treatment. When he came back to Canada last year with wife Lyn, he was unexpectedly hospitalized again – but didn’t have B.C. medical coverage.

The result: a whopping $126,000 medical bill that the couple has no way of paying.

“One day at a time, that’s the way I have to look at it because I don’t know,” Lyn Scanlan said Monday. “I know it has to be paid, but how, I don’t know.”

Things got worse for the couple three weeks ago at Saanich Peninsula Hospital ER, where they claim a bleeding Eric sought treatment – only to be turned away by a triage nurse.

“She turned around and she says ‘Look, do you have $800? Because you’re not getting any treatment until you pay it,’” Lyn said. “We were turned away; we didn’t have $800… I could not believe that our health care had dropped to that.”

When contacted by CTV News, the hospital said it doesn’t turn people away from the ER, contradicting the Scanlans’ story.

And with things looking bleak, the final straw came when the pair received a letter from the Canadian Border Services Agency saying Eric was to be deported, despite being married to a Canadian woman.

His wife is devastated, saying she and her husband just want to live out his last days in peace on Vancouver Island.

“I don’t know how to react at this point, I’m in shock,” Lyn said. “And with my husband being as ill as he is, I’m his 24 hours care – and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

The spouses’ story has been picked up by local media, with some online commenters accusing them of looking for free handouts from taxpayers. Lyn says that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“People are under the impression that we have no money. That’s not the case,” she said. “I just wanted foreigners to be aware, be alert that when you come into our country this is how they’re going to treat you.”

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Ed Watson