THE NUMBER of signatures on a petition calling for Ashya King’s parents to be reunited with the seriously ill boy has sky-rocketed overnight.

As campaigners head up to London this morning asking the Prime Minister to assert pressure on Hampshire police to get the extradition order stopped they are taking with them the names of nearly 100,000 people who have agreed with them.

Family friend Ethan Dallas is joined by his uncle Andy and a friend Sanjay Ganatra from Sholing as they make their way to Downing Street.

Sanjay said: “We received just under 100,000 signatures until last night. We’re dead chuffed.”

It is due to be presented to Prime Minister David Cameron today.

Daily Echo:

It comes as Hampshire couple Brett and Naghmeh remain in custody as the controversy over their son’s treatment for a brain tumour rages on.

They have been detained for up to 72 hours after refusing extradition to the UK yesterday.

The couple took to the dock in the Spanish capital Madrid while, 300 miles away in Malaga, police stood guard outside the hospital room of their gravely ill son Ashya, who is not being allowed any contact with his family.

His six brothers and sisters, who are still in Spain, have hit out at authorities for not allowing them to see their brother, while his grandmother, Patricia King, fears the separation might kill little Ashya.

His family are not the only ones angered by this separation, with thousands signing a petition that will be delivered to Number 10 today in the hope that the family can be reunited.

It was set up by a friend of the King family in Hampshire and urges the Prime Minister to put pressure on Hampshire police and the Spanish authorities to stop the five-year-old’s parents being extradited back to the UK.

Teenager Ethan Dallas is a friend of Ashya’s older brother Naveed and started collecting the signatures which have come as far as Australia, America and Europe.

Helping Ethan to spread the word is grandfather Sanjay Ganatra, from Sholing, Southampton, who is due to head to Downing Street today to deliver the petition Sanjay, of Middle Road, said: “The petition has got nothing to do with the politics, it is not criticising the police or the hospital, it is simply asking for the family to be reunited.

‘Heartache’ “As a parent I know what heartache they will be going through. If I was separated from a child of mine who needed desperate treatment in a foreign country I would be destitute.

“Ashya shouldn’t be separated from his parents.

“The petition is asking for Mr Cameron to assert some pressure on the Spanish authorities and even our own police to stop the extradition order, to allow the parents to be with their child.

“We don’t know the full facts as to what’s happened. We’re not going to get involved with that.

“Please just let the parents take care of him.”

You can sign the petition at change.org/p/police-reunite-ashya-with-his-parents.