A Bermudian couple is seeking help to get their 11-year-old son, who has a rare and aggressive cancer, to an alternative therapy centre in Spain.

Last August doctors in the UK gave Neehari Robinson only six months to live without additional treatment.

He is receiving treatment to extend his life, however it is not seen as a long-term cure, according to the family.

Neehari has lost a considerable amount of weight and has not eaten by mouth for more than a week. He is receiving morphine to cope with the pain caused by alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the connective tissue.

His parents, Otis and Shakira Robinson, are hopeful their son can achieve full remission. They want to take him to the Budwig Centre, an alternative therapy centre in Spain.

“The Budwig Centre is an alternative treatment centre and we only started looking into it because conventional medicine doesn’t hold a lot of hope for him,” said Mrs Robinson.

“Alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma is very rare, so they don’t know too much about it and consequently how to treat it. So it’s really just a matter of us trying any and everything to save our child.”

Treatment at the centre will cost £7,300 ($11,000), not including airfare, and supplements and vitamins will add an additional £600 to £1,000 per month, according to the couple.

The Robinsons, who moved to the UK in 2010, have launched a £20,000 ($32,500) appeal to cover the expense and, after three weeks, are nearly one-quarter of the way towards their target.

Neehari fell ill in 2013. At first it was thought he was suffering from asthma, but X-rays showed his lungs were full of fluid and needed to be drained. Doctors told the Robinsons they suspected there might be a tumour.

After undergoing a painful chest drain, and having the cancer diagnosed in October 2013, Neehari underwent nine months of intense chemotherapy and five weeks of radiotherapy.

He enjoyed three months of remission last summer before relapsing in August.

Mr Robinson was a well-known road runner in Bermuda before the family moved to England five years ago.

Mrs Robinson previously worked in the Department of Statistics.

After relocating to Birmingham, and with scholarship assistance from the Association of Bermuda International Companies, she studied at Aston University and achieved a 2:1 BSc in business and psychology. She was just three marks off a first. She started studying for a master’s degree in October 2013. A few weeks later Neehari was diagnosed. The youngster’s needs are now the primary focus for the family.

Mrs Robinson, whose father John Richardson died from bowel cancer in June 2010, said: “When my dad died, I realised that tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. And it was even more important to me to finish the goals that I’d set for myself.,” she said.

“But nothing could prepare us for having a child diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. I think that is something that people can never prepare themselves for.

“We cope the best way we know how — to take one day at a time.

“Otis complements me because he’s a very positive thinker and he tries to make me adapt a more positive attitude.”

When Neehari was in hospital receiving chemotherapy, the couple’s oldest two children would come and visit after school. Eldest son, Niecekiel, 16, was studying for GCSEs at the time, but brought his books along and studied while visiting the hospital.

Mrs Robinson said: “I spent almost all of last year in hospital because not only would Neehari have to go in every three weeks for treatment, but he would spike a temperature or be unwell in between that and they’d have to admit us.”

Mr Robinson said life had been put into a new perspective by Neehari’s illness.

The couple said the oncologist treating Neehari at Birmingham Children’s Hospital is “100 per cent on-board” in supporting their wish to seek alternative therapy for their son at the Budwig Centre.

A fundraising website page has been set up for Neehari at http://gofundme.com/kjpszg.

On the webpage the couple wrote: “Neehari is a sensitive, caring little boy with a strong will to live and his parents and siblings are desperate to save him from this deadly disease.”

Donations to assist Neehari can be made directly through the gofundme website page, or alternatively via the HSBC Bermuda account number 006-033-005-011