When a Welsh schoolboy tweeted a warning about a so-called 'miracle drug' that was in fact industrial bleach, he had little idea his message would be taken worldwide. Clare Hutchinson reports

When schoolboy Rhys Morgan was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a chronic condition that causes inflammation of the digestive tract, he turned to the one place he knew for help.

The 15-year-old computer obsessive switched on his laptop and began browsing the internet.

Like many others who are given such life-changing news, Rhys was desperate for answers and to find the right medication that might make his condition bearable.

That was when he found out about MMS, also known as Miracle Mineral Solution.

"I was on the Crohn's forum, which is a site for people with Crohn's to talk to each other, and saw mention of this substance MMS," said Rhys, as he sat on his sofa at home in Cyncoed, Cardiff, with his mum Dawn by his side.

"It was being discussed on the forum and someone was saying they had a sore throat since taking it. Someone else, who was often pushing it on the site, kept saying 'keep taking it, you will get better'.

"A few days later the original person came back and said 'look, I can hardly swallow my spit now, it is that sore' and, once again, the guy just said to take more.

"I was thinking 'this can't be right'."

At the time, Rhys was "concentrating on my own problems", so he left the website and thought little more about it.

The year 11 pupil at Kings Monkton School, in Cardiff, had been feeling unwell since late 2009.

His mum Dawn, 46, a nurse, said: "He started sleeping all the time, not really eating.

"He had never had much of an appetite and now we think the symptoms of Crohn's Disease had been underlying for a while."

In January, Rhys went to his GP, who took samples of blood for testing, but by March doctors still did not know what was wrong.

It was when he was admitted to hospital in March with severe stomach pains that Rhys was eventually referred to a gastroenterologist at the Children's Hospital for Wales.

There he was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, which is a swelling of the digestive tract thought to be caused by the immune system reacting to bacteria, foods and other substances.

In some cases, the swelling can cause blockages, sores or ulcers, which can sometimes only treated with surgery.

After a course of steroids to stabilise his symptoms, Rhys was eventually prescribed a drug, Renicade, which has been proven to bind and block the effects of TNF-alpha, a protein involved in the inflammation process.

As a result of taking the drug Rhys is now feeling much better - although he will suffer from Crohn's for the rest of his life.

His life and the lives of his parents, including his dad Paul, 48, a doctor, and sisters Emily, 11, and Rebecca, 13, began to return to normal.

Then two months ago Rhys, a self-confessed sceptic, remembered the "miracle" remedy he had seen advertised online and decided it was time to find out more.

His search led him to the website of MMS, where its creator and main exponent Jim Humble makes some extraordinary claims.

An introduction to the website states: "This breakthrough can save your life, or the life of a loved one.

"The answer to Aids, hepatitis A, B and C, malaria, herpes, TB, most cancer and many more of mankind's worse diseases has been found."

It goes on to claim MMS has been tested on as many as 70,000 people in Africa, with Mr Humble claiming in an interview he gave it to 500 people with HIV in Malawi.

Mr Humble, who is currently living in the Dominican Republic where he has started his own church, has also said five million people across the world have used the solution to cure everything from Aids and cancer to cuts and burns.

The only thing it does not cure, he has claimed, is "broken bones".

His interest sparked by the website's description, Rhys delved further and uncovered a shocking revelation.

On the home page of the US-based Food and Drug Administration he found a warning about MMS which read: "The product, when used as directed, produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health.

"The product instructs consumers to mix the 28% sodium chlorite solution with an acid such as citrus juice.

"This mixture produces chlorine dioxide, a potent bleach used for stripping textiles and industrial water treatment.

"High oral doses of this bleach, such as those recommended in the labelling , can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and symptoms of severe dehydration."

It goes on to instruct people taking the solution to "stop using it immediately and throw it away".

Jim Humble ignored repeated attempts by the Western Mail to contact him, but his website states MMS simply consists of "the type of harmless chlorine that is in table salt, and oxygen" and is "the purest of all things that you might take".

Rhys immediately went back to the Crohn's forum website to warn users about the treatment, but was soon banned from posting on the forum because he was "upsetting" the other users.

He said: "The first few replies I got were positive but then the anti-conventional medicine people started.

"I was really shocked that this previously nice community had rallied against me so quickly and were calling to ban me. Some of the things they were saying were really insulting. I don't even want to repeat them."

While he was struggling to warn people about MMS Rhys was also posting real time links to the Crohn's forum site on his Twitter account.

Overnight, the number of people following his tweets more than doubled from 150 to 350.

Rhys' warning was picked up by science writers in the national press and re-tweeted to thousands of their followers and, in a matter of weeks, "bleachgate" was born.

"Someone suggested it should be called bleachgate and the name just stuck," said Rhys.

"I wrote a blog about what had happened and so far it has had more than 10,000 views."

Interviews with national radio stations soon followed and his story was featured in the Western Mail's sister paper the South Wales Echo and on the BBC news.

"I was sat in my physics lesson at school," said Rhys. "There was a knock at the door and it was the press officer for the school saying 'Rhys, Radio Four are on the phone, they want to interview you.' It was so strange."

When Kenyan paper the Daily Nation ran a story warning its readers about the risks of MMS, Rhys knew his warning was finally getting to the people who needed it most.

At the end of September, Rhys won a round of applause from Cardiff's full council when he took his campaign to its meeting.

There he used the rare practice of a public question to try to win the backing of the city's trading standards unit for his efforts to stop the promotion of MMS. The next day a warning appeared on the pages of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) website and Rhys won official support for his campaign.

The next step, he says, is to contact the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to see if it can help. Then the schoolboy will go back to the small task of completing his GCSEs in the hope that, one day, he will qualify as a doctor.

He said: "Whereas most other alternative remedies aren't inherently dangerous this is.

"It will cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea and in large quantities could even kill someone.

"It is aimed at some of the most vulnerable people in our society - the people who are desperate for something to cure whatever condition they might have and will try anything.

"It's simply not right and I think it is important people know the truth."