Parents of cancer-stricken 5-year-old Ashya King reunited with their son

Brett King said he could hear his wife crying as he sat helplessly in a separate Spanish jail cell, arrested for taking their cancer-stricken son out of the United Kingdom for a treatment they say their doctor refused to offer. The Kings were arrested for taking 5-year-old Ashya out of the country for proton beam therapy, which they said the Southampton University Hospital refused to discuss following the initial surgery to remove Ashya’s tumour. King, 51, and his wife, Neghemeh, 45, saw their son for the first time Wednesday after they walked free, following the lifting of an extradition order against them by British prosecutors. Brett King said Ashya wasn’t allowed to have any visitors since their arrest in Spain on Saturday.

When we were in prison, there wasn’t a minute that went by without our hearts hurting to see Ashya … Being locked up, you can’t do anything.

Brett King, father of 5-year-old Ashya

"My heart is still up here," King said, grabbing his throat. He said he looked forward to reuniting with his son. "We want to help my son get through this bad time because he hasn’t got too many months to live," King said. Ashya was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a cancerous brain tumour located in the cerebellum, a part of the brain that controls motor functions. Ashya had a 70 to 80 per cent chance of surviving five years, according to a statement from Southampton University Hospital, where Ashya was being treated before the family left for Spain. After surgery to remove the tumour, King said he wasn’t satisfied with hospital’s treatment plan, which he called "trial and error." So he researched treatments on the Internet and came up with what he thought was a better approach: proton beam therapy, a type of focused radiation therapy that uses protons rather than X-rays.

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