When six-year-old Jake Turton kept being sick his parents thought he was just ‘playing up’ to avoid school.

But an internet search of his symptoms by his mum saved his life, as Jake had an aggressive brain tumour which had spread to his spine. Had his parents not rushed him to hospital, he would have had less than a week to live.

Three months on, Jake has survived major brain surgery, come out of a ten-week coma, is learning to walk and talk again, has had three months of chemotherapy and is to be the first child in Yorkshire to receive a new regime of treatment developed in Italy that could help him reach his 11th birthday.

His mum Cath Turton, 42, said when Jake, a pupil at St Paul’s Primary School, Buttershaw, Bradford, had said he could make himself sick by pressing his throat she and his dad thought he didn’t want to go to school, and so did their GP.

“But then he started complaining about a stiff neck and even with one eye closed could see two of everything so I went on Google,” said Mrs Turton.

“I got on to a website about brain tumours where it said if you tick two boxes in this checklist go straight to A&E for a brain scan. I ticked five.”

Doctors confirmed Jake had a malignant tumour of the Medulloblastoma type. “They actually told us – rightly or wrongly – that there would be little they could do for him,” said Mrs Turton.

Jake was taken from Halifax to Leeds General Infirmary where surgeons carried out a six-hour operation to remove the tumour, but some of it attached to his spinal cord had to be left.

During the procedure Jake’s brain shut down in defence and he spent three days in intensive care, where he was diagnosed with swine flu. It took a month for him to start communicating again.

He was moved to St James’s Hospital in Leeds for treatment which would have given him at best a 30 per cent chance of surviving over the next three years.

But, a week before that treatment was to begin, Jake’s oncologist attended a meeting of UK specialists where it was agreed that the Italian treatment, the Mian Protocol, which has a 73 per cent survival rate over five years, could be used in this country.

His consultant paediatric oncologist, Sue Picton, said: “The follow-up from Italy is good with patients doing extremely well, going into their seventh year.”

So far Jake has had three months of chemotherapy and on Monday begins a month of radiotherapy twice a day under general anaesthetic.

“He’s got a lot to go through but he’s a fighter,” said Mrs Turton, who works for her husband Andy’s plumbing business in Bradford. “He’s started being cheeky to the nurses which is a good sign!

“We’ve gone from being told our little boy had no hope to being given this chance and we’re going to grab it.”

Before the radiotherapy begins, Jake visited his classmates – bringing along a few pals from the Bradford Bulls as a surprise.

Mr Turton said: “The school has been fantastic. We just wanted to say thank you and asked the Bulls to help us.”