The plight of Ashya King, the little boy suffering from a brain tumour whose parents prompted a police manhunt when they took him from hospital and fled to Spain, has sparked emotional memories for the family of a Gravesend youngster.

Almost three years ago Aaron Lindridge, now aged five, was diagnosed with a rare tumour that needed the same specialist proton beam therapy as Ashya, also five.

The treatment is not widely available in the UK and the NHS will only fund it for certain cases.

Aaron, who lives with his family in Riverview Park, had his treatment paid for and spent three months at the Procure Centre in Oklahoma, USA, in 2012.

His family – mum Tracy, dad Mark and sister Emily, now nine – were all able to go with him, thanks to the generosity of Messenger readers who raised more than £10,000 in three months.

Aaron, whose tumour was attached to his prostate, is now in remission, although both his chemotherapy and proton therapy have left him with on-going health problems.

But while Tracy, 37, appreciates the predicament of Ashya’s parents, she believes their action was “drastic” and could have put their son’s life at risk.

“When a child is sick all parents want to push ahead of the queue, but does that give them the right to do what they did? How must other parents in a similar position be feeling? Maybe they are now thinking of doing the same. We put our trust in the doctors” - Tracy Lindridge

“Hearing about Ashya has brought it all back for us,” she said. “At first I couldn’t believe they had taken him out of hospital. I feel they put him in danger and were not acting responsibly.

“They were told proton therapy would not work for their son. By doing this they have got the publicity and now he is being treated but that doesn’t mean it is going to work.

“When a child is sick all parents want to push ahead of the queue, but does that give them the right to do what they did? How must other parents in a similar position be feeling? Maybe they are now thinking of doing the same. We put our trust in the doctors.”

Aaron was diagnosed with the soft tissue cancer rhabdomyosarcoma in December 2011. It affects fewer than 60 children in the UK every year and the cause is unknown.

The tumour was originally the size of a baked bean can but shrunk to the size of a bar of soap with chemotherapy.

However, doctors decided proton therapy, which delivers a more direct hit to the affected area, was his best option.

Although this was decided in January 2012, the Lindridge family still had an agonising three-month wait for funding.

Once in Oklahoma, they met other parents whose children were undergoing the same treatment, including ones with brain tumours like Ashya.

“What people don’t realise is that proton therapy doesn’t work on all cancers and all tumours,” said Tracy. “Doctors will only recommend it if they believe it is going to be successful.

“We met one child whose brain tumour has been cured but it has left a lot of side-effects and he is now in a wheelchair. ”

Apart from regular MRI scans for at least another three years, Aaron is undergoing tests after developing bladder and bowel control problems.

“Even if treatment is successful, there is still a long road ahead but when I look back to how Aaron was two years ago it is amazing” - Tracy Lindridge

He also had to have hydrotherapy last year on his hips and legs after he began to struggle to walk, again a side-effect of both chemo and proton therapy.

Tracy and Mark, 46, faced difficult decisions, including whether to go ahead with surgery which could have left Aaron impotent.

They do not know if Aaron will be able to father children.

Tracy said: “Even if treatment is successful, there is still a long road ahead but when I look back to how Aaron was two years ago it is amazing.”

NHS England funds proton therapy abroad whenever it is “considered clinically appropriate” and last year funded treatment for 99 children.

Ashya is now being cared for at a proton therapy centre in Prague, where he is expected to be treated at a reported cost of up to £70,000.

It may still be eventually paid for by the NHS.

Proton therapy centres in London and Manchester are not expected to open until 2018.