Swallowing human faeces will cure disease, the NHS has announces as it opens it first ever frozen faecal bank.

Frozen samples are being shipped around the country from a laboratory outside Portsmouth to relieve thousands sufferers of a previously incurable gut problem.

Every year in England more than 13,000 people suffer from Clostridium difficile, and one in five do not respond to conventional treatment.

The condition, which appears to be a side effect of antibiotics, causes people to lose control of their bowels.

Robert Porter, who is based in the Queen Alexandra hospital outside Portsmouth and works with scientists from Portsmouth University, estimated that the infection had a mortality rate higher than breast cancer.

However, help may be at hand for sufferers of the condition.