This is exactly right.

I decided that I was going to have to drink the bacteria myself.

I thought I would just be having no symptoms for a few years, after which I would have an

ulcer.

And then, hallelujah, it'd be proven.

Actually, I was very shy about this experiment.

I didn't tell anyone, not even my wife or Robin, until afterwards.

I asked my boss in gastroenterology, Ian Hislop, to do an endoscopy for me one day.

As he put the scope down, he was saying, Barry, I'm not going to ask why I'm doing this.

And from around the tubing, I gritted out, just take the biopsy.

So he took some biopsies from me, and they were all clear.

No bacteria.

Then I infected myself with bacteria that I'd cultured from a patient who did not actually

have ulcers, just indigestion and gastritis.

I was able to eradicate his infection with some antibiotics.

So already I knew that I could, if necessary, take a treatment which worked on this bug.

I had some safety features built in, I thought.

I drank the bacteria, and at first I was okay.

But instead of being perfectly well and having a silent infection, after about five days,

I started having vomiting attacks.

Typically, at dawn, I would wake up, run to the toilet, and vomit.

And it was a clear liquid, as if you had drunk a pint of water and regurgitated it straight

...