Cancer cure is nothing but a miracle for the couple who ‘did an Ashya King’ after visiting the Prague Proton Centre
The unnamed pair visited the Czech Republic after treatment in the UK left them disappointed but the results they got from the revolutionary system prove this terrible disease can be beaten
YOU may remember a couple of years back the shocking case of cops being called in by a hospital because they alleged a young brain tumour patient had been “kidnapped” by his parents.
The parents of Ashya King were not happy at the treatment at Southampton General Hospital and wanted the more targeted approach of a private clinic in Prague, called the Proton Centre.
Two years later the boy, now seven, has returned to school.
Through a friend of mine I have now heard of another remarkable story from the Proton Centre.
I know the name and background of the family involved — the husband is quite big in the motor-racing world — but will not be identifying them.
The heartache for the family began when doctors diagnosed the 40-year-old wife with cancer of the oesophagus.
It’s the tube that carries the food and liquids from the mouth to the stomach.
She went to the Royal Marsden in London — one of the world’s leading cancer specialists — for treatment and neither she nor her husband have anything but praise for the medical staff there.
But having remembered the Ashya story they looked up the centre online and Mrs X decided that it was worth taking a risk and literally moved to the Czech Republic while undergoing the treatment.
Her husband shuttled between London and Prague to be with her.
After a couple of months of proton particles being fired at the cancer, I am delighted to report she has been told by the doctors she is completely clear of the cancer.
A massive relief to the family and their child.
The problem with conventional radiotherapy is that it covers a much wider area of healthy cells rather than the proton therapy, which targets the cancer narrowly and therefore with much more power.
There are other proton clinics in France, Switzerland and the United States but the cost is an eye-watering £70,000. I am told the Prague clinic costs half that figure.
As distinct from the none-too-bright managers at Southampton General, who called in the cops when Ashya’s parents spirited him away to the clinic, the Marsden put up no barriers, wishing the family every success.
Medical friends tell me such clinics will open here, but not until 2018.
Can’t come soon enough.
It's time for the Rocco horror show
THE picture on the left is of Rocco Ritchie, troubled son of Madonna and Guy Ritchie.
The picture on the right is Matthew Webster, the troubled son of Sam and Gemma in TV’s The Missing.
Are they morphing into the same person?
The link between Rocco and Matthew is uncomfortably close. Rocco was recently arrested for allegedly possessing cannabis near the home in Primrose Hill, Central London, he shares with his father.
In the BBC thriller, which thank God ends on Wednesday after eight baffling weeks, Matthew (actor Jake Davies) plays a boy who is dabbling in drugs.
In real life, Rocco likes to hang out on council estates with the rougher crowd. In the TV series, Matthew also enjoys running with a couple of wrong-side-of-the-track mates.
And both of them have difficult relationships with their mother.
Perhaps in a few years’ time when they make The Missing 3, Rocco can take Matthew’s part as he won’t need a script – he will simply act out his own life.
More a biopic than a mystery.
Give beat bobbies a chance
THERE are two faces of the nation’s police.
There are the idiots at the top like Mike Veale, the Chief Constable of Wiltshire, investigating the absurd abuse allegations against Edward Heath and the bobby catching a nasty right-hander from schoolboy thugs in New Cross, London.
My heroes are the coppers who feared a beating in the mean streets of SE14 but still signed up. I have nothing but disdain for Veale and Scotland Yard’s Hogan-Howe, who have brought nothing but shame to their forces for their pursuit of VIP sex claims.
I know it’s tough finding suitable recruits for top police jobs but surely we are scraping the bottom of the barrel with this crop.
How about promoting a bobby to the top job? They can’t be worse – and are likely to be more honest.
THANK you Ed for cheering me up for the past ten Saturday nights with your dancing on Strictly.
However, it didn’t quite balance the 13 years of misery you and your mates brought me in your day job.
WITH GB Energy going bust at the weekend, these are difficult times for the tiddlers in the gas and electricity supply business.
Just heard from Andy Porter, a former deputy political editor at The Sun – he went on to worse things (PR!) – who tells me his dad received a renewal on his Fiesta Finesse of
£709 from the AA, although he had only paid £345 last year and hadn’t claimed. He told the AA to get stuffed, went searching and just paid £247 to a rival for the same cover. The
AA really are charlatans.
Do send your saving stories to kelvin@the-sun.co.uk.
HAVE never seen London’s Oxford Street so busy with shoppers literally fighting to stay on the pavement.
The economy is going through the roof.
George Osborne should be ashamed of himself for wanting to keep us in penury with his pro-EU campaign.
Cut-off Grans a tragedy
IT’S clear from my postbag that it’s not only parental alienation that should be illegal.
Due to divorce and the like, grandparent alienation is an even bigger problem.
One grandmother tells me how, when her son split from his wife, she told him “she would make sure he would never see his children again”.
The children were ten and seven. Her son killed himself and the mother forbid the grandparents from ever seeing those children. That is ghastly and she should be up in court.
I would be grateful to hear from solicitors/lawmakers as to what might be done on this important subject.
Please email kelvin@the-sun.co.uk.
SO by freezing petrol tax, Philip Hammond saves the motorist £4.3billion but by increasing insurance tax he costs us £4.1billion. Why bother?
It would be quicker and more honest if Chancellor Hammond stood up and disclosed how skint we really are – the national debt will soon be a whisker away from £2trillion – and then sat down again.
All this taking from one pocket and putting in the other is a ridiculous waste of time and holds up a clever guy like Hammond to public ridicule.
THERE has been much hullabaloo about shapely Made In Chelsea star Olivia Bentley not being related to carmaker W. O. Bentley, as producers claimed.
What’s the fuss about? Made In Chelsea is not made in Chelsea, with all the storylines fabricated. So why should Olivia tell the truth – nobody else is?
THE overpaid and anonymous management at South West Trains (perhaps somebody could ping me a name and an email) should learn that a timetable is supposed to have a passing resemblance to the time the train will actually turn up.
I presume SWT execs never use them.
The schedule has never been worse but not a word of apology.
A public disgrace.
DRIVING school in Boston, Lincs – L On Wheels. Barber’s in Swadlincote, Derbys – Sweeney Swad.
Seen on tyre van in Dorset – Old And Bald, Time To Re-tyre. Tyre business in Blaydon, Tyne & Wear – Get A Grip. Bridal shop in Harrogate, North Yorks – Maids To Measure.
Fish and chip shop in Darlington – Codrophenia. Restaurant in Benelmadena, Costa del Sol – Wheel Tapas And Punters.
Dog groomers in Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex – The Furry Dogmother.
So love the punnies.
Do send more to kelvin@the-sun.co.uk.