They say that cats have nine lives but three-year-old Joe Way has already gone one better.

The little boy has shown astonishing resilience by fighting off ten superbugs - any one of which could have killed him.

He suffers from two serious disorders, one of which led to the hospital stay where he contracted the first bug.

“Joe was that close to dying,” said his mother Claire. “The doctor told us to call his grandparents around so we could all be at his bedside to say goodbye.

“But he just kept battling and amazed everyone. It’s as if he’s superhuman.

“He’s such a little thing but he just refused to give up. Joe is a fighter. Whatever gets thrown at him he just bounces back. It is utterly incredible.

“In his short time in this world he has coped with more pain than most adults will ever have to, but he laughs and smiles all the time.”

Doctors once said Joe - who caught the superbugs over eight months at two hospitals - was one of the sickest children in the country.

He suffers from Angelman syndrome - a disorder which has left him with severe learning difficulties, epilepsy and jerky body movements.

His battle with the bugs began after he contracted Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a rare illness that causes blisters and sores. That saw Joe taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital, Truro, last June close to death.

He recovered but the open sores made him vulnerable to airborne hospital viruses and he went down with a severe infection and klebsiella pneumonia, which caused organ failure.

His skin became wildly inflamed and bloated with fluid and he was transferred to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children.

“Matt and I had to stand by and watch as Joe’s whole body blistered up,” said Mrs Way, whose other child, Megan, is five.

“It was like seeing your child burn in a fire without being able to pull him out. Then he caught his first superbug while he was still in recovery.

“We were told the journey to Bristol could kill him, but it was still his best chance of survival because they had the equipment he needed to keep him alive.

“We were told to prepare ourselves for the worst again everyone came to say their goodbyes. But, incredibly, he survived.”

In Bristol Joe caught three more bugs: clostridium difficile, E coli and ESBL klebsiella, which is a less serious strain of the first superbug he caught.

Joe had recovered sufficiently by September to be transferred back to the Royal Cornwall, which is near his home in Newquay.

But he caught five more bugs: enterobacter sakazakii, gram negative staphylococcus, pseudomonas, klebsiella pneumonia again and staphylococcus aureus, a relative of MRSA.

After his discharge he developed pseudomonas bacteremia, a bug usually acquired in hospital.

He beat it three weeks ago. Mrs Way insisted she did not blame the hospitals for her son’s infections.

“He is just doing great now,” she added.

“He is still poorly but his smile and laughter are back. He is a little miracle.”

Her husband Matt, who runs a holiday park, said: “He makes the best of what each day can bring. He is an inspiration and constantly amazes us all.”