‘Nerd’ desperate to move Swedish fiancee to UK after meeting on World Of Warcraft believed she was a man for years

A self-confessed nerd is desperate to move his Swedish fiancee to the UK after meeting her on World Of Warcraft and believing she was a man online for years.

Craige Glendinning, 33, a leisure centre volunteer who lives in Insch, Aberdeenshire, met Johanna Eikenaar, also 33, who looks after dogs in Vasteras, Sweden, on the online game in 2013.

With Johanna choosing to play the game as a male elf hunter character, Craige thought he was talking to another man for years until they finally met in person in Newcastle in 2017 and he spontaneously proposed with a Lord Of The Rings replica ring.

Craige was born with kidney failure, meaning he has undergone two transplants and been on dialysis for 12 years and the couple have only been able to spend a matter of months together over the past eight years.

Fearing he could “die overnight” because of his condition and unable to afford visa costs thanks to “stupid barriers” since Brexit, Craige said raising the £5,000 they need via his GoFundMe page to bring Johanna to the UK would mean everything to them.

Recalling the first time he met his fiancee in person, Craige said he feared the worst when her bald Geordie taxi driver first knocked on his door.

“I opened the door and I had the chain on, and the guy said ‘Have you ordered yourself a Swedish girl?'” Craige told PA Real Life.

“That made me feel worse because I thought ‘You are not Swedish’, but then he moved to the side and she was getting her bags and I just thought ‘Thank God’.”

On what the visa money would mean to him, Craige said: “There are going to be disabled people, nerds like me, who are meeting people online these days, but these stupid barriers are in the way, stopping us from being together.

“We haven’t been able to be together for 10 years and I’ve had a second transplant, but the transplant could fail tomorrow, this is why I’m still on benefits, or I could die overnight.

“The money means so much, I have no words.”

Craige was born with kidney failure and only one kidney, meaning he had to start dialysis around the age of nine to help his body remove extra fluid and waste products from the blood.

He received a kidney transplant from his mother in 2005, when he was 13, but the organ eventually stopped working around nine years later and he had to continue with dialysis.

During this time, he played World Of Warcraft – and in 2013, he met another male character online, played by Johanna, and they started messaging.

“I thought she was a guy – it’s hilarious,” he said.

“We were playing on that non-stop for about a year, but then we completely stopped talking out of nowhere from 2014 to 2015 because I ended up having severe hypertensive seizures.”

These seizures developed as a result of Craige’s kidney failure, meaning he was often “unresponsive”, and he lost his eyesight completely for around six months.

The two resumed playing World Of Warcraft and that is when Craige was told his gaming partner was in fact a woman – although he still feared he was being “catfished”.

Craige and Johanna started messaging on Skype in 2016 and have spoken “non-stop since that day”.

They decided to meet in person in 2017, with Johanna flying over to Newcastle upon Tyne, where Craige lived at the time – but even at this point, Craige thought she may be too good to be true.

His fears appeared to be confirmed when a “bald guy knocked on the door” at 1am but, much to Craige’s relief, he turned out to be Johanna’s taxi driver.

“We spent an hour talking about how she was not a guy – it was the funniest thing,” he said.

Johanna stayed for three weeks, supporting Craige with his dialysis, and the couple enjoyed spending quality time together and shared their first kiss.

Craige then decided to propose before she left for Sweden, but he did not have a ring and just grabbed a Lord Of The Rings box he found in a hurry.

“I was on one knee, and I opened the box, and I didn’t realise it still had my Lord Of The Rings Frodo ring in it,” he said.

“It was meant to be a ridiculous thing where there’s no ring, but it was a replica with all of the Elvish markings.

“I was waiting for us to start fighting like Smeagol, but she said ‘yes’ straightaway and gave the ring back – so instead I gave her a Haribo ring.”

The couple discussed getting married and moving in together, but because of Craige’s health and Johanna’s work commitments, they did not see each other again for several years.

When Johanna visited again in 2020, they explored schemes and looked for jobs which could sponsor a visa, but none worked out – and with Craige’s vital dialysis treatment, he could not risk leaving the UK.

“I literally said to her ‘Look, there’s no way I can move to a different country. If it wasn’t for the NHS, I would have died at 12, I can’t risk going anywhere’,” he said.

After receiving a second kidney transplant in 2023, Craige moved to Scotland and is currently volunteering at his local leisure centre while he recovers.

According to the Government website, if you apply for a family visa as a partner, you and your partner usually need to prove that your combined income is at least £29,000 a year.

Because Craige receives disability benefits with Universal Credit, this does not apply, but the couple face countless other fees, including the annual Immigration Health Surcharge of £1,035 and expensive moving costs.

They have therefore turned to the public for help and launched a fundraiser to fulfil their dream of living together in the UK, with a target £5,000 to cover the necessary visa fees, at least one year of the health surcharge, and moving costs including transporting Johanna’s husky, Loki.

“This money would finally give us a chance to be together,” Craige said.

Johanna added: “The sad reality of it all is that we have a limited amount of time left since Craige can still lose his kidney or die at any time.

“We have put our life on hold for the past 10 years already, so I want nothing more than to finally be able to start out life together for real.”

To find out more or donate, visit the couple’s GoFundMe page at: gofundme.com/f/10-year-waiting-game-from-renal-failure-to-living-together.