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 BUMPER season of births has left zoo with three of the cutest exotic kittens you're likely to see .
HOTSPOT MEDIA - WAVE-ING GOODBYE TO RUSH HOUR: WHILE most workers endure commuting chaos by road or rail everyday, one entrepreneur has come up with a novel way to get to the office - by KAYAK .
A LUXURY baby cot has hit the shelves with a price tag just shy of 10 MILLION POUNDS .
A teacher has told how she was attacked by a murderer on her way home from a night out but courageously managed to charm him out of strangling her .
THIS incredible shimmer of silver fish mirrors the image of that of an underwater tornado .
WELCOME to the Hidden Beach - the world's most idyllic BOMB SITE .
A SERENE turquoise glow glimmers from underneath these powerful icebergs .
A man has lost an incredible 20st after his addiction to food left him £15k in debt .
A schoolboy is the envy of his friends due to a one in 14-million condition which means he can only eat FRY-UPS to survive .
VIBRANT bursts of colour fill the screen as beautiful flowers blossom in these time-lapse videos .
This cheeky chappie is getting into all kinds of monkey business as he enjoys cooling off on a scorching hot day .