A mother who ran away with her seven-year-old son to stop him having cancer treatment said she had no choice because she felt she was on a conveyor belt”.

Sally Roberts, 37, disappeared with Neon after a dispute with her estranged husband Ben over the boy’s condition and treatment despite doctors warning he could die within months without radiotherapy.

The pair were found by police officers near East Grinstead earlier this month after a judge ordered a search.

The case has been brought before the High Court in London where a judge was due to decide whether the child should be put through radiotherapy.

However Mr Justice Bodey told a hearing in the Family Division that he would not deliver a ruling because of “developments” in Neon’s condition.

A further court hearing is scheduled for December 18.

Ms Roberts told ITV’s Daybreak that she does not necessarily want him treated in an “alternative way” but wanted options other than radiotherapy explored amid her fears of its potentially damaging affect on Neon.

She agreed that going on the run with her son was an “act of desperation”.

She said: “I was on a conveyor belt and I had no choice. They said treatment must start. I thought if I was going to take him to the hospital they would never let us go home.

“I have been asking the whole time, ‘Please show me evidence that he does need this treatment’.

“The only thing they can come up with is a study from the 1940s.”

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