Rob Horgan
THE family of recovered Ashya King are hoping to move back to England from Spain.
Insisting they are ‘being forced to live like exiles’, they told the Olive Press this morning they are making plans to return next month.
While they are delighted with the healthcare in Spain for their son Ashya, who has been given the all-clear from cancer, they are unable to find substantial work in the country to survive.
Ashya’s brother Naveed explained that the family were hoping to go back to England for ‘work reasons’.
“It is practically impossible to find work here, particularly for me and my older brother Danny,” he said.
“He has already started to make a move back to England to get work and I need to join him.
“The Sun (newspaper) have promised to help us make the move back home, talking to David Cameron on our behalf and steamlining the move.
“Of course, we love it here, but we can’t stay here forever if we cannot work.”
The family have been living in a rented apartment between their old home in Casares and Marbella for the last few months while Ashya has been undertaking rehabilition treatment at the HC Marbella hospital.
On a recent visit to their favourite cafe in Manilva, by the Olive Press office, they told the Olive Press that they were now working out what to do with their lives.
“We are so happy with the treatment and the decision we made,” Brett said. “Look at him, look how well he is doing.
“While expensive it has been the best move for Ashya.”
Brett, whose family have lived in nearby Casares for up to a decade, added: “We are now working out what to do next and where we end up living.”
“Of course, we love it here, but we can’t stay here forever if we cannot work.”
This is the reality of the crisis; Spain is such a long way from a recovery and whilst the country is indeed lovely, the reality is that you can’t marvel over how pretty it is when you can’t feed your family. Spain does not have the basics in place for working expats, so unless you have long-term work, or limitless funds, investing in Spain is a total no-no.
That’s right Fred, why do you think I keep banging on about the need for Spain to be business friendly and attract inward investment? Unless and until this happens, there will not be a sustained recovery and unemployment will remain high. When will they learn?
According to the other story today they managed to live in Spain for over ten years. They want to get back to benefit Britain and free health treatment as opposed to paying now.
That is the strangest thing. Their work/residence history is beyond murky. Even in the UK no-one believes they are resident, just rented a house for the free surgery close to Brett’s mum. The tax authorities will probably be paying close interest especially with the massive donated amounts. I wish a decent investigative reporter would do a piece on this family and see if the media manipulation that they have obviously been doing stands up to scrutiny. Some of their allegations are unbelievable but they know that it is hard to retaliate when a small child is involved and also confidentiality. Personally, I don’t trust this man or his sons to turn my back on them for a second.
You may be right Bryan. A number of different stories have down the rounds about where they were living, were they legally resident anywhere and were they entitled to the treatment the UK paid for. I just hope it works out well for Aysha.
The same family who say in the Daily Mail they are ‘very unhappy in Spain’. Manipulators. They are just chancers and beggars using their ill child for personal gain and advantage. They won’t say where they’ve lived for the last 15 years. they won’t say what job and tax they’ve paid and they won’t say they were diagnosed in Spain and ran to UK for free treatment before running away again when unproven proton therapy wasn’t given although he chose to ignore the court order to give chemotherapy in Prague. This family are murky and someone with a set of balls needs to investigate!
Steve I agree. The media are just reporting what the family have told them. Their story is full of holes and even the BBC are reporting it unquestionly.
What I don’t understand is why the press are backing them generally, talking to Cameron on their behalf etc, if it’s true. The reports about being clear of cancer and miracle treatments are very damaging to health services everywhere. It is not possible to know for a few years whether anyone is free from cancer, and it has been noted a number of times that the recovery you have seen is exactly what would have happened with no therapy at all. Now I see priorities in investment are being distorted to fund more of this kind of so called treatment with no evidence of success in these cases. Meanwhile these parents have denied chemotherapy to their child. outcome will not be known for about 5 years – fact. Even if it’s a good outcome, they are still wrong. The general public are, I am afraid, more gullible and lacking in any kind of scientific understanding than anyone would care to believe, and politicians just react to whatever the public seem to like. Laughable.