Ashya King missing: Brother of five-year-old boy with brain tumour taken by his parents posted emotional plea on Facebook

Emotional video was released on YouTube just after missing five-year-old was diagnosed with cancer

Rose Troup Buchanan
Wednesday 03 September 2014 09:56 BST
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Missing boy Ashya King and his brother Naveed
Missing boy Ashya King and his brother Naveed

The brother of a seriously-ill five-year-old boy taken without consent from a hospital by his parents posted a Facebook message to the child minutes before he had emergency surgery.

Ashya King, who police are desperately searching for after his parents took him from Southampton General Hospital on Thursday afternoon, was diagnosed with cancer on 22 July this year.

Scroll down to see the video

In the video, Naveed King explains his younger brother is about to have emergency surgery “in the next 10, 15 minutes” in order to drain the fluid from his brain.

“I just want to say we love you so much,” he says. “No kid at the age of five deserves to have a brain tumour and just hope that the doctors know what they are doing and they know exactly where to operate and what to take out. And they take everything out and you can be better.”

“We’re going to look back in ten years when you’re 15, we can actually see that things have changed for the better,” he says. “Just because they’re bad at one point, doesn’t mean they’ll always be bad.”

Nine days after posting the video, Naveed wrote on Facebook: "Even though he may not have a long life expectancy we can just pray that he will recover fast and enjoy his precious life. They are carrying on to do tests on his body to see if there is anything they can do for him."

A few days later, after updating friends and family on Ashya's progress, he posted: "I didn't want to write anymore because I don't wish to cry, but please continue to pray for Ashya to recover."

In the latest post about Ashya, made nine days ago, he thanked his friends and family for their support and expressed his hope that although Ashya was "still not out of the danger zone" he was making progress.

Naveed is believed to have travelled to France with Ashya and his family.

Det Supt Dick Pearson, of Hampshire Constabulary, said: "If we do not locate Ashya today there are serious concerns for his life.”

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