A friend of Dr Michael Mosley said he thought his disappearance was one of his “experiments” before news of his tragic death broke.
The presenter, known for his appearances on and Radio 4's Just One Thing, suddenly vanished on the island of Symi where he was holidaying with his wife, Dr Clare Bailey. He vanished after setting off for a walk alone at around 1.30pm on Wednesday before finally his remains were found on Sunday.
Mike Rogan, 68, first met Dr Mosley ten years ago when he deliberately let a two-metre-long tapeworm from Kenya live in his gut for months. The samples were given to Mike and his colleagues at the University of Salford. Now he's revealed he initially believed the news of his disappearance was another of his experiments.
He told the Liverpool Echo : “It was a crazy feeling when I first heard the news. It puts it all into perspective - how an everyday thing such as walking in high temperatures can make such a difference.
“We’ve all been on holiday to hot places like Greece and wondered about ourselves so it just puts it all into perspective. At first, it was interesting because I thought it was an experiment with Michael, maybe looking at the impact dehydration can have on the body.
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Yesterday a coroner in Rhodes confirmed Dr Mosley died at 4pm on the day he disappeared and appears to rule out any foul play. The claims the coroner believes Dr Mosley sat down with his hand on a nearby terrace, seemingly casting doubt on previous reports he had fallen down a small cliff.
Mike added of his friend’s earlier experiment: “It was interesting because anybody who is a parasitologist wonders what it is like to be infected. With Michael, it gave us a supply of information we could use to work on our diagnostics tests as this was someone we knew what day he had been infected and how long it would take to show up positive on the tests.
“It supplied us with some really good material to work with. We got to know him when we went to the pub for lunch. He chatted away, he was a lovely guy. Never too intrusive or over-stating. He was genuinely interested in the science behind it all."