A former soldier who bravely took on penny-pinching NHS bosses in his fight against terminal cancer has died, aged 37. Mark Bannister's wife has revealed how her husband was forced to LIE to doctors in order to get the life-prolonging treatment he had been denied due to a cruel postcode lottery. But after wasting six months of precious time trying to obtain the drug Avastin, Mark's cancer was too advanced for the medicine to have any effect. The dad-of-two succumbed to the brain tumour he had been battling for nine years at around 6am on Monday morning, with his wife Karen, 33, at his side. In tribute to her husband, who served in Northern Ireland and Bosnia during nine years in the army, grieving Karen said: "The Avastin didn't have any effect but we had to fight for six months in order to get it. "In all that time his tumour had been growing. In the end, he had to claim that he was living at another address in order to get the treatment. Who knows what would have happened if he had got the drug sooner - I truly believe it would have helped him.
A lazy tree frog, tired of hopping along a branch, chooses the slowest form of transport when it jumps on top of an unsuspecting snail .
GLAMPING is taken to a whole new level in the form of the luxurious Pop-Up Hotel .
A frilled lizard appears to be belting out a tune as it sits in a tree with its mouth open wide .
HEART-MELTING shots of a French bulldog and a ten-month-old French baby could be the cutest you’re likely to see .
A nine year old girl nearly lost her leg after doctors initially misdiagnosed her bone cancer as a pulled muscle .
A woman has spent over £11k to get the perfect body after a 9st weight loss left her with excess skin .
A woman who blew £12k of her student loan on junk food and booze has lost 10st after ditching her unhealthy habits .
A little brown bear cub shows his doting mum that she is always on parent duty as he uses her as a scratching post .
Heart pounding, Rebecca Cain jumped as a car door slammed on the street outside .
A good samaritan who came to the aid of a rape victim has told how they were turned away from the Salvation Army because "they only help men" .