A YORK mother who wants to give a teenage Malawian orphan a home has had her case taken on by Madonna's lawyer.

Joyce Dean, 58, from Rawcliffe, was told by Malawian government officials we are going to do a Madonna.' They appointed Alan Chinula on her behalf to fight for adoption although Mrs Dean is expecting to pay him.

Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg has contacted Mrs Dean and Madonna publicly backed the York mother-of-two in an interview on Newsnight.

Mrs Dean supports Madonna's adoption of 13-month-old David Banda. However, she thought it was unfair that the pop star was allowed to take the boy home in only two weeks while she has fought to take 15-year-old girl Caroline home for nearly two years.

Mrs Dean was told she would have to be a Malawian resident for two years to adopt. She went on to apply for a student visa for Caroline after securing her a place at a private school.

However, the British Embassy blocked the move, arguing that Caroline should stay in her own country.

Now Mr Chinula will try to obtain an interim six-month care order for Mrs Dean from a Malawian family court. That would allow Caroline to come to York in time for Christmas. After six months, if there were no problems, Mrs Dean would be able to formally adopt Caroline.

Mrs Dean, a teaching assistant and committed Christian, met Caroline while doing charity work for orphans in Ntonda with the Zambezi Mission UK.

She was shocked to learn that Caroline had lived alone since she was 11-years-old, relying on food hand-outs from a local orphanage.

Mrs Dean said: "I've spoken to Mr Chinula on the phone and there's hope this could be sorted out quite quickly. I'm worried about Caroline.

"I spoke to the orphanage recently and they said had come in needing food and help. They managed to give her a little money. We all know what can happen to girls like Caroline on their own.

"She's just one of 600 orphans around that village alone. The scale of the problem is immense. All I can do is help this one child.

"The people who are trying to stop Madonna should ask, who is going to look after that child if she doesn't?'"

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said she could not comment on individual cases, but said: "A foreign adoption order is recognised in the UK if it was made in a country included in the Adoption (Designation of Overseas Adoptions) Order 1973.

"Malawi is one of those countries, but any adopted child would still have to have an appropriate visa."

According to Government directorate UKvisas, adopted children must meet a number of strict criteria to qualify for a visa. They must be unable to support themselves financially, have broken all ties with their birth family and not be adopted just to make it easier to enter the UK.

Bringing a child into the country who does not meet the legal requirements is an offence punishable by up to 12 months' imprisonment.

* Mrs Dean will discuss her story and her experiences in Malawi at a fundraising coffee morning at York Baptist Church, Priory Street, York, from 10.30am tomorrow. Entry is free.