Parents of Ashya King say boy is now cancer-free

LONDON, March 23 (UPI) -- A boy, whose parents were arrested for removing him from the British hospital while treating him for brain cancer, claim he is now cancer-free.

Brett and Neghemeh King were detained in a Spanish prison last summer after they removed their son Ashya, 5, from a Southampton, England, hospital against doctors' advice. They sought alternative treatment in Prague, Czech Republic, after English doctors prescribed a treatment of proton beam therapy, a procedure not covered by the British government's National Health Service (NHS).

The international manhunt for the family made headlines across Europe, and after the parents were released from jail, Britain declined to extradite them. The parents said they needed to sell their second home in Spain to pay for the recommended treatments.

The boy was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of brain tumor which was successfully removed by Southampton surgeons, who sought proton beam therapy to prevent a re-occurrence. The surgery left Ashya unable to speak or eat and drink on his own.

Prague's Proton Therapy center treated the boy and in an interview Monday in Britain's Sun newspaper his father said he was cured.

"It's incredible news. We are absolutely delighted. It has justified everything we have gone through because things are working out for Ashya. If we had left Ashya with the NHS we don't think he would have survived. We have saved his life," Brett King said, adding the boy has begun speaking again.