A frantic couple are spending hundreds of pounds a week on alternative medicine in a desperate bid to keep their son alive.

Jake Rafferty’s family, from Halling, have been told several times that his death was imminent and on one occasion, when doctors announced he had just hours to live, they started to think about his funeral.

But mum Emma Rafferty said Jake, 13, who is riddled with cancerous tumours from the waist upwards was “an amazing fighter who refused to give into his cruel illness”.

Emma, 36, and husband Adrian, 48, who both work for the Metropolitan Police, are spending up to £600 a week on special food supplements which come from America. They are also liaising with several experts in India, the US and Spain.

Emma said: “He has defied doctors. I believe the dietary supplements are working and we feel Jake is getting better. “

“So far with consultation fees, private scans and import fees we have spent in excess of £25,000.

“Frankly, we are skint.”

Jake, the eldest of the Rafferty’s five children, faced death after an aggressive tumour covering eight vertebrae was discovered in his spine nearly four years ago.

The only option was complex surgery which left the sports-mad lad wheelchair-bound and paralysed from the waist down.

At the beginning of this year, Jake was admitted to St George’s Hospital in London to fix metal rods in his spine and a pre-operation scan revealed the spinal tumour had returned and spread to several areas in his brain.

After surgery, he was put on a daily six-week radiotherapy course that left him suffering terrible side-effects and he remained in hospital all summer.

Despite the treatment Jake had seizures and the tumour doubled in size.

Emma said: “We said to each other we cannot lose him. Tears were shed. But Jake wanted to fight and so did we, despite doctors telling us he had three to 12 months.”

Emma then started to research alternative cures and came across the Cellect-Budwig protocol, a dietary treatment aimed at advanced cancer patients.

Jake was taken seriously ill again in August, and rushed back to hospital where they learned his stomach and bowel had stopped working.

Emma said: “They said Jake had just hours to live.

“He has defied doctors" - Emma Rafferty

“We called in his two brothers and sisters and yet again their hearts were crushed.”

While he improved slightly after two blood tranfusions the family feared the worst.

They were allowed to bring Jake back to the family home in Britannia Close to die.

Emma said: “Miraculously within days he started to get better. He started to eat better. We had a MRI scan a week later and the results were amazing.”

Since having a seizure six weeks ago, Jake has been in King’s College Hospital in London, but is due to come home in the next two weeks in time for Christmas with his siblings, George, five, Oliver, eight, Elizabeth,10 and Jessica, 12.

To help Jake’s family visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding and search “Phil Hollister”