On the morning of your procedure you swallow a small magnet with a glass of water, and it makes its own way down into your gut without you feeling a thing.

Then you're put to sleep, and in about an hour Dr Loy places a second magnet further along your gut through a few tiny incisions on your tummy. He brings the two magnets together, and they hold on gently through the wall of the gut.

That's the clever part. Over the next two to three weeks your body forms a new opening between them all by itself, with nothing cut away and no staples at the join.

Once the opening has formed, the magnets leave your body together, naturally, when you go to the toilet, and a simple X-ray confirms they've gone.