‘You’re going to search the ends of the earth’: Why families travel abroad for brain cancer treatment
In the hospital corridor, Jasmine got ready for yet another round of blood tests – and she couldn’t help but cry.
“She’s never liked needles,” her father, Anthony Freeman, explained, “but since her diagnosis it’s been non-stop, and she’s just terrified of injections now.”
Jasmine Freeman was diagnosed with a brain tumour in February
But blood tests are only the start of Jasmine’s day.
Over the following few hours we watch as the seven-year-old girl is pushed in a wheelchair to a series of exams: an ECG, a 45-minute scan in the MRI machine, as well as mobility and brain function tests by her doctors.
All are designed to closely monitor her health, and keep an eye on the growth of the midline glioma – a malignant tumour – in her brain.
But, while the tests themselves seem pretty routine, they’re not happening at an NHS hospital near her home in Bracknell, but at the Princes Maxima children’s hospital in Utrecht, Netherlands, where Jasmine is enrolled on an experimental drugs trial for her rare and incurable cancer.
She was diagnosed in February, and the prognosis was devastating.
Anthony said: “The doctor just told us straight that 90% of kids die within the first nine months of diagnosis. We just sat there – and we didn’t know what to do.”
Jasmine with her father Anthony Freeman
To make an unbearable situation even worse, they soon realised that treatment options for Jasmine’s condition on the NHS are extremely limited.
“The only thing the NHS offered was radiotherapy, that was it,” said Anthony.
“If she showed any signs of getting worse within six months they couldn’t do anything else. We were just supposed to let nature take its course.
“No parent is just going to sit there and say, ‘Ok well we’ll just get on with it then.’
“You’re going to search the ends of the earth for treatments.”
The first thing doctors told Anthony when he enquired about rolling Jasmine on the treatment was that this wouldn’t cure her.
Oncologist Dr Jasper van der Lugt says the treatment is a big burden with zero guarantees.
Some patients see benefits for a long time, others none at all: “But it’s good to have hope. And at a minimum we learn from it.”
Why families look abroad
In the UK, clinical trials or alternative treatments are exceptionally hard to come by, so like many families, they began looking abroad.
Families, charities and MPs have all lamented the lack of clinical trials and brain tumour research in the UK.
Brain tumours kill more children and adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer, but just 1.3% of the national spend on cancer research has been allocated to the disease since records began in 2002.
A report by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Brain Tumours this year found a number of issues, from too much red tape, no up-to-date database to collate the trials on offer, and crucially not enough money going into brain cancer research.
Five years ago, the government announced £40m of funding for brain cancer research, but just £11.3m of this has been spent.
For families looking for alternative treatment abroad, the treatments can be prohibitively expensive.
Thanks to the generosity of friends and strangers alike, Jasmine’s campaign has fundraised nearly a quarter of a million pounds. But others may not be so lucky.
Then, there is the pain of traveling abroad.
‘Extra stress’
Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson was 33 year olds old when five years ago he was diagnosed with a grade-three astrocytoma – another type of aggressive brain tumour.
He was only offered radiotherapy and chemotherapy on the NHS, and told he had an estimated three to five years to live. He sought a second opinion and fundraised for privately funded immunotherapy treatment in Germany.
“Being away from the family was horrible. The first time I had to go over to Germany was for 10 days straight, and that was terrible,” he said.
“It was extra stress, having to plan the hotels, the flights, the car hire, and then we tried a different avenue to save money, so we started driving out there – those journeys took about 12 hours each way.”
It cost £120,000, but for now, his scans show no signs of cancer.
Where would he be without this treatment? He doesn’t want to think about it.
What’s going wrong?
Hugh Adams, from the charity Brain Tumour Research, said many of the barriers are “to do with rigid thinking” and a resistance to innovate or prioritise – which explains the lack of a useable database.
But pharmaceutical companies say there are other barriers to operating here.
Biodexa Pharma, based in Cardiff, is currently two running clinical trials for brain tumour treatment, but instead of holding the trails for UK patients at home, they’re happening out in the US.
Dr Dmitry Zamoryakhin, the company’s chief scientific officer, told Sky News the process for approving a clinical trial is much faster in the US – 30 days compared roughly six months in the UK.
He added: “This, also coupled with the consequences of Brexit, makes the UK not an attractive place to conduct clinical trials.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care pointed out the £40m allocated to research the “devastating disease”, and added: “We’ve invested in every suitable research application made and the funding will continue to be available for further studies to develop new treatments and therapies for brain tumours.
“To encourage further successful applications, we are investing in infrastructure, workshops for researchers and training for clinicians.”
Jasmine is continuing to receive treatment in the Netherlands
A few days after the trip to the Netherlands, Jasmine’s family got some hopeful news: her tumour had shrunk by 25% – so she can continue to receive treatment.
“We’re over the moon,” said Anthony.
UK
Madeleine McCann case: Sky News tracks down woman at centre of hit-and-run theory investigated by police
A woman investigated over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has told Sky News she was shocked by the police interest in her.
Portuguese and British police investigated the German woman seven years ago while their focus was on a theory Madeleine woke up, got out of her family’s Praia da Luz holiday apartment through an unlocked patio door and was killed in a hit-and-run accident.
This was just before Christian B emerged as the prime suspect over the three-year-old British girl’s disappearance in 2007. He is expected to be released from a German jail next week at the end of a sentence for raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.
The German woman said she was not aware she had been under suspicion
The hit-and-run theory was leaked to Portugal‘s Correio da Manha newspaper in June. It didn’t identify the woman, but the report suggested the investigation fizzled out because German authorities refused to get involved and deploy an undercover detective to befriend the suspect.
We tracked down the German woman, and she said she was not aware she had been under suspicion.
She told us she’d been working in a restaurant near the beach in Praia da Luz and got home after the time Madeleine was discovered missing from her bed. Her British partner was a chef at the Ocean Club who had served dinner to the McCanns and their friends.
“I don’t even know if there was a car accident, because I was working,” she said. “I came home at half ten, and my boyfriend was home already.”
Their flat, like the homes of many residents, was searched by Portuguese police in the days after Madeleine vanished.
‘Do you think I’ve cut her up?’
The German woman said she got angry during a second search when she was asked to empty her freezer and asked a police officer: “Do you think I’ve cut her up in little pieces and I’m going to have her for dinner?”
The woman said that more than 10 years later, German police contacted her, but only to ask her if she knew Christian B and had seen him near the McCanns’ apartment.
The German woman said she was unaware about press reports on her
She said: “They wanted to know if I ever saw this German bloke around this area where I was living for a long time. Other people obviously saw his van, but I never saw it.”
The woman told us a German police commissar – equivalent to an inspector – called her several times over more than a year.
He asked for the SIM card from a phone she used when she was living in Portugal. That might suggest the officer was fishing for more than information about Christian B.
Christian B raped an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005
Local reports alleged the woman may have borrowed a car, but she said: “Do you think I ran her over? I didn’t even have a car at the time.”
She was unaware of the Portuguese newspaper report in June until we told her.
“Why didn’t my friends tell me and call me about this?” she said.
The family of the woman’s British partner, who has since died, told us they had been questioned by detectives from Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange, which is supporting the German and Portuguese police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
The tapas restaurant where the McCanns ate on the night Madeleine went missing
The German woman said her British partner served the McCanns at the restaurant
When asked about the investigation into the German woman, a Met Police spokesperson said: “We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May 2007 in Praia da Luz. This includes working with our colleagues in Germany and Portugal.
“Our thoughts remain with the family and it would be inappropriate to comment further while enquiries continue.”
Christian B warned not to return to Portugal
The night before Madeleine’s disappearance, her parents said she had woken up crying, and the next day she had asked where they had been. Part of the hit-and-run theory is that she might have gone looking for them.
But Madeleine’s mother, Kate, has long dismissed the suggestion that her daughter managed to get out of the apartment alone.
Madeleine McCann went missing on 3 May 2007
In her book entitled Madeleine, she wrote: “To give any credence whatsoever to the idea Madeleine could have walked out on her own you would have to accept that she had gone out the back way, pulling aside the sitting room curtains and drawing them again, then opening the patio door, the child safety gate at the top of the stairs on the veranda and the little gate to the road – and carefully closing all three behind her.
“What three-year-old do you know who would do that?”
Kate McCann dismissed the theory her daughter left the apartment by herself
It appears police played down the hit-and-run theory when their case against Christian B began to look more promising.
Christian B remains under investigation and has been warned not to return to Portugal when he is freed from jail.
Ex-pat Ken Ralphs, who knew the German drifter at the time Madeleine vanished, told us: “I think he’s a danger to society.
“It’s going to make a lot of children and women feel vulnerable again. He’s an injurious monster as far as I’m concerned.”
Ken Ralphs says if Christian B returns to the Algarve ‘I’ll be watching him 24/7’
Mr Ralphs, a former community campaigner from Stockport, told Sky News last year about a mutual friend, a fellow Briton, who claimed to have got involved in a plot with Christian B, a convicted child sex offender.
The alleged plan, a week before Madeleine vanished, was to steal a child to sell to a childless couple.
All three men were part of an off-grid community living in camper vans near Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished.
Madeleine was taken from her family’s apartment while her parents dined in the resort restaurant
Mr Ralphs, who lives outside Luz, said: “Christian wouldn’t be welcomed back by many people here. I’m not worried about him personally, but there are others who are concerned. If he turns up here, I’ll be watching him 24/7.”
Christian B, 48, who cannot be fully identified under German privacy laws, is thought by investigators to have kidnapped and murdered Madeleine, but he hasn’t been charged and denies any involvement.
Christian B ‘will be forever connected with Madeleine case’
Mr Ralphs’ damning view of the suspect echoes that of the German prosecutor investigating the Madeleine case.
Hans Christian Wolters said a psychiatrist had assessed Christian B as dangerous and “similar crimes, especially sexual offences, are to be expected from him again”.
“We do consider him very dangerous and assume there is a risk of reoffending,” he said.
He added: “For us, he is still the only suspect in the case. We continue to assume that he is responsible for her [Madeleine] disappearance and ultimately also for her death.”
Ahead of Christian B’s release, the German authorities are to try to persuade a judge to impose restrictions on him: an electronic tag, a curfew, a fixed address or even a travel ban.
Christian B is due to be released from jail next week
The Portuguese lawyer who represented Christian B when he was convicted of diesel theft in the Algarve in 2006 believes he will never shake off the suspicion over Madeleine.
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At his office in Portimao, Serafim Vieira said: “His life is not going to be easy, not just because of the crimes he’s committed, but he’ll be forever connected with the Madeleine case, to the murder of Madeleine.
“When anyone sees him on the street, or sees his picture, they will connect him with Madeleine.”
UK
890 people arrested at Palestine Action protest yesterday – including 17 on suspicion of assaulting police officers
The Metropolitan Police has said 890 people were arrested at a protest against the banning of Palestine Action as a terror group on Saturday – including 17 on suspicion of assaulting officers.
A total of 857 individuals were arrested in Parliament Square in London under the Terrorism Act 2000 over alleged offences, the force said.
It added that a further 33 were arrested for other offences, with 17 of those detained on suspicion of assaulting officers. The Met Police did not say what the other 16 arrests were for.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Claire Smart, who led the policing operation, thanked Met Police officers for their “professionalism and tireless work despite the level of abuse that they faced”.
Pic: PA
Ms Smart said: “The violence we encountered during the operation was coordinated and carried out by a group of people, many wearing masks to conceal their identity, intent on creating as much disorder as possible.
“Many of those individuals have now been arrested and we have begun securing charges.”
Defend Our Juries, which organised the demonstrations, insisted the rally was “the picture of peaceful protest”.
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‘Do I look like a terrorist?’ nurse at protest asks Sky News
Ms Smart also claimed that the “contrast between this demonstration and the other protests we policed yesterday, including the Palestine Coalition march attended by around 20,000 people, was stark”.
She added: “You can express your support for a cause without committing an offence under the Terrorism Act or descending into violence and disorder, and many thousands of people do that in London every week.
“We have a duty to enforce the law without fear or favour. If you advertise that you are intending to commit a crime, we have no option but to respond accordingly.”
Defend Our Juries previously estimated 1,500 had gathered for the rally on Saturday, where many held signs saying: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Pic: PA
Pics: PA
The group has been banned as a terror group since 5 July after MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of the move proposed by then-home secretary Yvette Cooper, making it illegal to express support for the group.
It came shortly after two Voyager aircraft suffered around £7m worth of damage at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on 20 June.
Defence Secretary John Healey told Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that he expects newly appointed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood to be “just as tough” as her predecessor on Palestine Action.
He said: “I expect her to defend the decision the government has taken to proscribe Palestine Action because of what some of its members are responsible for, and were planning for.”
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The Met Police previously said the consequences for those charged under the Terrorism Act include a maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment.
The Home Office is set to appeal against the High Court ruling allowing Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, to proceed with a legal challenge against the government over the group’s ban.
Defence Secretary John Healey has told Sky News the government is considering using military barracks to house asylum seekers, as an estimated 1,000 people arrived in the UK on small boats on Saturday.
“We are looking at the potential use of military and non-military sites for temporary accommodation for the people who come across on these small boats that may not have a right to be here,” he told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips.
“I’m looking really hard at it. I’m looking at it with the Home Office, and I recognise that the loss of confidence of the public over recent years in Britain’s ability to control its borders needs to be satisfied. And we have to deal with this problem with the small boats,” Mr Healey added.
Politics latest: Labour considers housing migrants on military sites
The measure follows widespread protests this summer over housing migrants in hotels.
Fresh small boat arrivals were spotted on Sunday, after an estimated 1,000 people arrived on Saturday – when French authorities said 24 people were rescued while trying to cross the Channel.
The figures compare to a relatively recent lull in crossings. In the previous seven days (30 August to 5 September) the Home Office recorded no small boat arrivals.
Zia Yusuf, head of policy at Reform UK, told Trevor Phillips that Britain has become a “soft touch” on migration, before suggesting between 15 and 25 detention sites will need to be built to detain asylum seekers. He described these as “purpose-built modular steel structures”.
“We can look around the world at where things have worked and worked well. President Trump stood up 3,000 detention beds in eight days. That was this year in the state of Florida – using steel modular structures,” Mr Yusuf said.
He added that the president’s crackdown has significantly reduced illegal border crossings and suggested the same could happen in the English Channel to deter migrants.
“These are unarmed, largely men in dinghies, we don’t need a particularly formidable military to be able to take them to a detention centre,” he said.
Zia Yusuf from Reform UK said he believes Britain has become a “soft touch” on migration
Shabana Mahmood will have the job of tackling illegal immigration after taking over from Yvette Cooper as home secretary on Friday – when Sir Keir Starmer carried out a major cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of his deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
National Crime Agency (NCA) figures show record levels of disruption of immigration crime networks in 2024/25.
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Officials believe this contributed to the lowest number of boats crossing the Channel in August since 2019.
But, despite the 3,567 arrivals in August being the lowest since 2021, when looking across the whole of 2025, the figure of 29,003 is the highest on record for this point in a year.
Sky’s Political Correspondent Liz Bates said that after Labour scrapped the previous government’s controversial Rwanda policy and shut down the Bibby Stockholm barge, ministers are “hitting up against many of the same problems” with “a really broken and very slow asylum system”.
“The context to all of this is a huge shake-up at the Home Office, and I think something of an admission that [Yvette] Cooper, despite her years of experience, could not get a grip… of this problem of people coming across the Channel in small boats and then ending up in asylum hotels,” she added.
Army bases were previously used by the Conservative government, but this prompted local protests, and the sites were widely criticised for their poor conditions in some cases.
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As Sky’s Home Editor Jason Farrell writes, Ms Mahmood has become the home secretary of a country where the national flag is being hoisted as a symbol of dissatisfaction – with anger at the arrival of desperate migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
Sir Keir’s sweeping changes
Sir Keir Starmer has announced sweeping changes to his ministerial team in the Home Office as his government works to get a grip of illegal migration to the UK.
Here’s a list of who has been moved, besides the home secretary.
Dame Angela Eagle, who was border security and asylum minister, has been moved to the environment department.
Dame Diana Johnson, who was policing and crime minister, has been moved to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
She has said in a post on X that it was an “honour” to work with police officers, and she is “delighted” to be moving to the DWP.
Dan Jarvis has been given a role in the Cabinet Office, in addition to his post as security minister in the Home Office.
And Sarah Jones, who was industry minister, has been moved to the Home Office.
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