CANCER DRUG FIGHT DAD DIES, EVEN AFTER LYING TO GET TREATMENT
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.
Other great stories
STAR-TI-LING: 40,000 STARLINGS MIMIC HITCHCOCK'S THE BIRDS
STAR-TI-LING: 40,000 STARLINGS MIMIC HITCHCOCK'S THE BIRDS- This could be the fearsome scene from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds as a flock of 40,000 starlings bask in the heat of a wonderful British sunset .
MY CONTRACTIONS LASTED TWO MONTHS
AN expectant mum suffered crippling contractions lasting a gruelling two months, due to complications from a rare condition .
OLYMPIC KNITWITS - KNITTERS STITCHED UP BY RED TAPE
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 .
WORLD’S ONLY ONE ARMED PRO-DJ
DANCE guru Matt Howes leaves crowds in a spin when he gets behind the decks - as the world's only one-armed professional DJ .
SEXY TRAFFIC GIRLS OF NORTH KOREA
WITH their robotic movements and pristine uniforms, these are the sexy traffic girls of North Korea that are becoming iconic figures in the secretive state .
MILLION DOLLAR MARILYN - WOMAN MAKES FORTUNE AS LOOKALIKE
A former cosmetic rep who swapped make-up for a career as a Marilyn Monroe lookalike has pocketed a staggering $4million (£2,630,000) as a full-time doppelgänger .
SLEEP PARALYSIS DREAMS TURNED REALITY
SITTING on a burning sofa unable to move, one man turns his terrifying dreams into reality .
STUNNING PHOTOGRAPHS CAPTURE TORONTO'S BEAUTY IN PUDDLES
A Canadian photographer has captured crystal clear mirror images of Toronto's architecture reflected in puddles - simply by using his iPhone .
A LOT OF BOTTLE: ARTIST PAINTS PICTURE USING JUST COKE
This artist had a lot of bottle to re-create a masterpiece painted with nothing but 24 litres of cola .
ADORABLE YOUNG FALLOW DEER IN LONDON'S BUSHY PARK
An adorable young fallow deer peers over its shoulder and is greeted by a cheeky jackdaw crow sitting on its back .
GIANT JELLYFISH DWARFS DIVER - CONTRACT CANCELLED
CONTRACT CANCELLED - DO NOT SYNDICATE!! .
DERELICT MANSION
With an abandoned tricycle sitting in an empty corridor, this derelict but once grand mansion could be the setting for The Shining .