Ashya King is 'a happy little boy who aspires to be a chef', his parents reveal on Good Morning Britain three years after taking him abroad for cancer treatment

Ashya King is now a happy little boy who aspires to be a chef, his parents revealed three years after taking him abroad for "life changing" cancer treatment.

The King family today appeared on Good Morning Britain to discuss how travelling abroad for treatment has "greatly extended his life".

The eight-year-old told hosts Kate Garraway and Charlotte Hawkins that he wanted to be a chef when he grew up.

His parents Brett and Naghemeh King revealed he was passionate about running and supporting his favourite football team Spain.

Mrs King told Good Morning Britain: “After three and a half years, his tumour hasn’t come back because if it was going to come back, it would have come back by now.”

Ashya is now back at school near his home in Southsea, Portsmouth.

In 2014, his parents were arrested for 72 hours fo taking their child to Spain where they planned for him to have cancer treatment.

Southampton General Hospital wanted Ashya to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy for medulloblastoma in the UK.

They were eventually released and were later given permission to take their child to Prague for proton beam therapy which they believed was better for their son.

His parents considered proton beam therapy to be less evasive and were concerned that chemotherapy and radiotherapy would leave him in a semi-vegetative state.

Mr King said: “We were hoping for the best and planning for the worst. We kept talking to the doctors, ‘can you help us with getting proton beam treatment for Ashya because we feel it’s less evasive, would have less side effects and there would be the same survival rates as normal radiotherapy’ but we weren’t getting too far.

“We were asking for second opinions and so whilst we were going forward trying to persuade the hospital, behind the scenes, we were putting plans in place just in case we couldn’t get that treatment.”

Mr King also described the point in which he knew they had to take their son abroad and said that once they knew the hospital wasn't going to give Ashya the proton beam, they decided to seek treatment in Prague.

The parents were arrested in Malaga and jailed for 72 hours.

A report by Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Board found their actions had "put him at risk"

A campaign was then launched to free them and for Ashya to be allowed the treatment.

After some time, they were given court approval and took their son to Prague for the treatment.

Ms King said her son has a good immune system and doesn't get ill at all.

A spokesman for University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust said: “We have and always will dispute the King family’s version of events and have described openly the facts of the case whenever these allegations have been made.”