Kevin Pickering is a changed man. After decades of severe pain and sickness he is getting on with his active life without having to worry about being struck down by a migraine.

When doctors discovered Mr Pickering had a hole in his heart, it was closed with a simple procedure.

The operation took place in December 2000 and since then Mr Pickering has never looked back.

His migraines are a thing of the past and he can get on with enjoying his favourite activities such as deep sea diving and playing squash without the fear of triggering an attack.

It is this apparent link between a hole in the heart, known as patent foramen ovale (PFO) and migraine, which has led to a major study about to be carried out by cardiac consultants throughout England.

If the research confirms the doctors' belief that many migraine sufferers can be cured with a minor operation, it will be a major breakthrough for those crippled by the condition.

Mr Pickering, 50, from Oving, near Chichester, had been blighted by migraines since he was a child.

He said: "I remember getting them when I was at school although at that point nobody knew what they were.

"I would get numbness in my fingers and my toes and not be able to concentrate or speak properly. I would want to say one word but another one would come out.

"I would get zig-zag lines appearing in front of me and I could not see the television properly. When that all finished, the headache would start."

Mr Pickering put up with the attacks over the years until he was about 18 and his condition was diagnosed.

He was an apprentice aircraft engineer and having attacks about three times a week.

He said: "I spoke to the doctor and asked if there was anything that could be done. The nature of my job means I have to be 100 per cent when I'm working but I was told there was no cure and if I was worried, I should change my job."

Mr Pickering learned some food and drink could trigger migraine and gave up cheese, chocolate and red wine but nothing seemed to make a difference until he gave up caffeine as well. The attacks went down to once a month.

He noticed physical activity could trigger an attack.

He could not enjoy a hard game of squash and he was also worried about going on long car journeys in case he became ill.

His love of diving led to the eventual diagnosis of his heart condition.

He said: "I was part of a filming expedition on the wreck of the Lusitania, off Ireland, five years ago.

"When I surfaced I had a very bad migraine. I knew that divers sometimes suffered from problems like hole in the heart and I started to wonder."

Mr Pickering was told about the work of cardiologist Peter Wilmshurst at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, a leading researcher in PFO and migraine.

Tests revealed he did have a hole in the heart.

Mr Pickering, whose partner Teresa Telus, 40, is also a keen diver, said: "After the operation my life changed completely. I don't worry about doing any type of activity and I just get on with things. It is amazing."

About 20 years ago it was found that divers who needed a PFO operation to treat decompression sickness reported migraine attacks had stopped.

About two million migraine suffers in the UK may be affected.

David Hildick-Smith, consultant cardiologist at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, has long been interested in the connection. The Royal Sussex is one of six hospitals acting as a centre for the research.

Dr Hildick-Smith is expecting to carry out about 65 operations on patients from across the South over the next year and the results of the study are expected in 2007.

He said: "It is a radical rethink of a treatment option for migraine but it seems to have shown some very positive results.

"For a proportion of sufferers, this could end up a cure for them."

Migraine sufferers can get more information at www.migraine-mist.org