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.
Housands of cushions handmade as gifts for Olympics athletes may go to waste after London 2012 KNITWITS stitched up volunteers by refusing to allow them to hand them out .
A woman who battled aggressive bowel cancer has started a fashion blog offering style tips for those living with a colostomy bag .
A DETERMINED great blue heron holds on tightly to its prey as the furry gopher attempts to wriggle free .
NEW DELHI, A woman activist of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party crosses a police barricade near the residence of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi during a protest against the recent rape of a five-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, April 21, 2013 .
FOR most restaurateurs, the phrase ‘the customer is always right’ is gospel .
An adorable red squirrel says goodbye to the summer as he shelters from the rain underneath a small blue umbrella .
A brave cricket takes his chances as he sits on top of this green papua tree frog .
INSIDE Britain's last Naval hospital where scurvy was cured looks like an NHS time capsule .
A skydiver cheated death after plunging 13,000 feet without his parachute opening but survived after landing in a bog .
A PENSIONER was left with a fractured jaw after being beaten and robbed outside his home in Birmingham last weekend .
The view from this rooftop pool is sure to make most holidaymakers envious .