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By Lisa Smyth

A pensioner claims to have cured himself of a debilitating disease with an old country cure inspired by a John Wayne movie.

Now grandfather Robert Anderson, 78, wants to spread the word after being symptom free for a full year. And he puts it all down to using his loaf – literally.

Robert, from Bangor, Co Down, was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, an inflammatory bowel condition, 45 years ago and his life was dictated by the illness.

He said: “It was horrendous and it used to get me down because I was told there was no cure for it.

“But I think I’ve found a cure and it costs just a few pence and has given me my life back. I only wish I’d discovered it years ago.

“I struggled for 45 years from the age of 33. I lost an incredible amount of weight and at one stage was so sick I weighed just six stone.

“Things were so bad I had to have part of my bowel removed because it was diseased.

“But nothing helped. Everything I did in life, every event we went to as a family, everything was controlled by this disease because I basically had diarrhea for 40 years. The children even learned never to put the toilet seat down because with this disease every second counts when you’re rushing to the loo.

“It was deeply distressing and embarrassing. Apart from that, it was painful and left me exhausted much of the time.

“Every time I’d leave the house I’d worry whether the place I was going to had a toilet.

“It was a nightmare to be honest and until recently I never realised the awful impact it had on all of us in the family.

“We were restricted in so many ways. We said no to so many invitations and fun things because it just wasn’t feasible for me.”

But that all stopped for Robert a year ago when at 77 he decided to experiment with an old cure he was reminded of while watching a John Wayne movie.

The famous western sparked a radical idea involving a hard-times recipe he remembered his grandmother making.

He revealed: “I was watching a John Wayne movie, Horse Soldiers, and there was a part where they used a poultice to help cure one of the characters to fight off an infection.

“It got me thinking that maybe I could do something similar but I needed to come up with a way of getting it into my bowel.”

Robert decided to adapt an old recipe in a bid to ease his suffering.

He said: “In years gone by, you didn’t throw stale bread away. It would be broken up and boiling hot water was poured over it.

“It would then be squeezed out and put down in front of children with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and some sultanas thrown over. Many children lived on it in days gone past.”

So last year, Robert stopped all his medication and took three slices of 12-day old crusty loaf, added a couple of spoons of milk and artificial sugar and heated the mixture in the microwave.

He added: “It had to be that particular bread and I calculated that the bread would be stale but not blue moulded 12 days after it was baked. I fasted for 24 hours to make sure my bowel was empty and the bread would be able to do its work.

“I ate it on May 1 last year and it worked. I believe an ingredient in the bread got to work on the disease in my bowel and in a direct hit, basically wiped out the problem.”

And instead of running to the loo constantly, Robert is now living a pain-free and normal life.

He said: “I haven’t had any problems since, not a single episode and I honestly believe the bread mixture cured me. I used to take all sorts of tablets but I haven’t had to take any medication since.

“I had a very serious case of Crohn’s and now it has gone completely and I can eat normally without worrying. I take my miracle cure on a regular basis to keep everything under control and I have amazed my doctor.”