A bride whose wedding was rushed forward because she was so ill with cancer has made an amazing recovery.

Bernetta Serrant married Reynaldo at an emotional service in Cookridge Hospital, Leeds, last May holding her morphine treatment in her hand.

She was too frail to stand for the ceremony and could barely be heard as she fought for breath to make her vows.

The 41-year-old mum was later given the last rites in hospital when she was given only one week to live with tumours on her spine, lungs and bowels.

Now, one of the cancers on her spine has gone along with the cancer in her lung and bowel and she is now in remission and at home in Intake Road, Low Moor, after also receiving treatment at the Marie Curie Cancer Care Centre in Bradford.

Bernetta, who still takes morphine for the remaining tumour, believes her recovery is due to the combination of the chemotherapy and radiotherapy she received at Cookridge and a herbal treatment she started to take.

She said: "The first herbal tablet seemed to give me a sudden boost of energy and everything has progressed from there.

"I put it down to the combination of all the treatments I have been having along with the support of my family and my faith in God.

"I know it's not a conventional treatment for cancer but it seemed to work for me. But I had been given the last rites - and I am still here and at home."

Hospital scans have now shown most of the tumours have reduced or vanished altogether.

A spokesman at the Marie Curie Centre said this was the first case of its type they had experienced.

She said: "We are delighted that she is so much better. However there is no medical evidence to support the medication she has taken."

A spokesman for Cancer Research UK also warned people against the use of complementary medicines.

"There is a tendency to believe that complementary medicines are always harmless. This is not the case," he said.

"While everyone has an absolute right to decide how he or she wants to be treated for cancer, Cancer Research UK does not advocate the use of any cancer therapy that has not undergone rigorous testing and analysis in clinical trials."

But Reynaldo, who paid about £75 for two months' supply of the tablets called Carctol, which are a mix of powdered herbs discovered by a doctor in Assam, India, in 1968, said he was convinced they had played a part in his wife's recovery.

"A friend told me about something which had worked for his mother and as I was looking that treatment up on the internet this other remedy just seemed to jump out at me.

"I e-mailed the doctor in India when Bernetta was really sick. The phone rang here at 6.30am and I thought they were ringing to say she had died. But it was the doctor ringing me telling me how many to give her.

"We know it isn't a miracle cure - but it feels like one.