A 35-year-old dad from Grimsby has finally been able to burp again after not being able to since he was a teenager.
Phil Brown had a throat condition called retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction.
This prevented him from belching due to a muscle in his neck not being allowed to relax, which stops an upward movement of gas.
After 20 years of suffering in silence, he then read about the rare throat condition and underwent a successful private procedure.
Despite being a "minor ailment", he said the condition had affected his social life, as it prevented him from going out and having a drink.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "My friends were out drinking beer and there was no way I could do it, it was really uncomfortable, I'd bloat up and it would end the night.
“As I got older I realised that it was who I was, it was just something I lived with.”
Phil went to a doctor for help with his condition and was advised to take indigestion and heartburn remedies to no effect.
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He also considered that he had Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
Then one day he stumbled on a post on Reddit discussing the inability to burp and thought that maybe he was not alone with his issue.
Phil discovered a treatment where botox is injected into the affected muscle, causing it to temporarily weaken, and paid £1,000 for the procedure in June.
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For the first two weeks he needed to drink water with every mouthful of food, but after only four days he noted an effect.
"It's now four months on and it's perfect, I can burp fine, probably too much if anything," he said.
Phil has since lent his support to a campaign to make the treatment available in the UK by the NHS.
"I know it's a minor ailment, but it's life-changing – it's a very small thing that had huge repercussions with my social life," Mr Brown said.
"As a result of the treatment I don't get any stomach issues whatsoever, the air all comes out and I'm not having to release gas the other way.”
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