A heavily pregnant Filipino nurse who left her country to work in Oxford says she is being forced to send her children home as she cannot afford accommodation while on maternity leave.

Cates Nepomuceno with sons John, left, and Jason

Cates Nepomuceno, 32, will be homeless next month because she has had to give up her privately-rented flat in Oxford Road, Rose Hill, while her wages drop when she has her third child.

The single mother and Radcliffe Infirmary nurse has been unable to find an alternative home and is getting ready to give birth alone, while her sons, Larkrise School pupils Jason, 10, and John, eight, return to the Philippines.

Mrs Nepomuceno said: "I will have to send the boys back with my mother. It's my last option. It's already heart-breaking thinking about it. I just can't sleep because I know how hard it is to be away from them.

"If I find somewhere I can afford while on maternity leave I will stop them from going, but it's as though there's no hope left."

Mrs Nepomuceno arrived in the UK in August 2001 to work at the Woodstock Road hospital, and has been promoted to a senior grade.

Although her husband and children joined her when she was settled, she said Mr Nepomuceno left 18 months ago. She is seven months pregnant by another man, who does not want his name on the baby's birth certificate. She said: "It was explained to me that in the first two months of my maternity leave, I will receive full pay, followed by half pay for 14 weeks. Then I will have to live on £100 a week, minus taxes, for four weeks.

"That's about £325, and my rent alone is £650."

The Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which oversees the RI, has some family accommodation, but there is a long waiting list.

Mrs Nepomuceno's working visa does not entitle her to any benefits or a council flat, and Oxford City Council housing officers said they could help her in 10 months' time, when she can apply for UK residency. She said: "I have done my best to help in the UK and maybe people could help me now."

Mrs Nepomuceno's neighbour Shirley King, a nurse at the Churchill Hospital, in Headington, said: "Cates came over as part of the big recruitment drive to help the hospital, but now she just doesn't know what to do.

"Because she's so heavily pregnant, she can't even go back with her boys. I think it's terrible that she has come here to help us and yet she can't get any help in return."

Sister Clare Francis, a Filipino nun at Headington's Convent of The Assumption, who helps the nurses from her country, said: "This is a very rare case. It's only when nurses have their own special, personal problems that this type of thing happens.

"The compensation they get, however, for coming here is not really that much. Their salaries, compared with the standard of living, especially in Oxford, are different from in the Philippines. They can live, but they can't have the other luxuries that they'd like."

An ORH spokesman said: "Once Ms Nepomuceno made us aware of her situation we did everything we could to help. We'll continue to provide what support we can."