24 Oct 2014

Ashya’s father: ‘We don’t feel safe going back to England’

Brett King says his family will not be returning to the UK “at the moment” following his five-year-old son Ashya’s treatment for a brain tumour in Prague.

Speaking on the last day of Ashya’s cancer treatment at the Proton Therapy Centre (PTC) in Prague, Mr King said: “We don’t feel 100 per cent safe at the moment about going back to England.

“We’ve still got something inside us, perhaps something might happen. We have a little scar. It’s healing up but it’s still a bit sore for us.”

Mr King was referring to the dispute he and his wife Naghemeh had with Southampton General hospital, from where Ashya was removed without medical consent on 28 August.

Police hunt

The Kings’ decision to leave the UK sparked an international police hunt as they began a protracted legal battle to get him to the Czech capital for the proton beam therapy that was not offered to them in Southampton.

It ended with a high court judge approving the move following their release from police custody in Spain, where they had fled after leaving their Portsmouth home.

Mr King said he hoped to return to the UK in March after Ashya had had further treatment in Malaga, where they have a second home.

He said Ashya had “really come along since we’ve been here”, adding: “You remember when he was just lying in a bed, but now he tries to walk, he sits up.

Communicating

“The most beneficial ones for us, we can actually start communicating with him. We can ask him simple questions and although he doesn’t speak, he nods. We can give him option questions – is it this or is it that? – and he chooses which one, so at last he’s communicating with us.

“But also phyisically he’s moving his arms, he’s moving his legs, he’s drinking, he hasn’t got the tube any more.”

The PTC says proton beam therapy is more effective than radiotherapy as it limits the collateral damage of radiation to other vital organs, such as the heart and liver in Ashya’s case.

This would lead to less severe long-term side-effects, including heart and breathing problems.

The therapy is not available for him on the NHS, although the health service has agreed to fund Ashya’s treatment.