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
TWO FIRES ON MY WEDDING DAYS, EXACTLY ONE YEAR APART BUT WE MARRIED ANYWAY
On June 23, 2017, Coral Denakis, now 27, woke up on the morning of her wedding day to find a car on fire outside her hotel .
I WON'T GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT MY STAB VEST, SAYS ATTACK VICTIM
A man who was stabbed ten times in a frenzied and random attack has told how, two years on, he is too scared to leave his house without his STAB VEST .
CLIMBING BEAR CUB
BALANCING on top of a tree, this bear cub puts her climbing skills to the test .
HIS BAIT WAS SEALED
15-foot-long great white sharks on the hunt, in False Bay, South Africa - SHOCK and awe pictures of 15-foot-long great whites on the hunt will leave you stunned .
DIGIT-AL ART: HANDY COLLECTION UNVEILED
Here's a collection of art for the DIGIT-AL age as these fascinating illusions of landmarks, places and even a banana are made using just a pair of hands .
AERIALS OF FLOODING ON SOMERSET LEVELS
Sam Notaro built his own flood defences to protect his four-bedroom home in Moorland, Somerset Flooding is likely to get worse around Somerset as groundwater levels continue to rise .
POLAR BEAR STRETCHES
Raising his arms above his head and lying flat on his back, a polar bear stretches as he sprawls out across the ice .
BASHFUL ORANGUTAN
A young orangutan comes over all shy as she hides her face behind a broken bucket .
SOMERSET FLOODING
Villages on the Somerset Levels have faced weeks of flooding with no respite from the conditions in sight .
ARTIST NAILS IT- BEAUTIFUL PORTRAITS CREATED FROM NAILS
An artist has NAILED IT by creating beautiful and perfectly precise artwork using a hammer and 30,000 nails .
ROYAL FAIL: POSTIE’S CAT FACES EVICTION DUE TO HEALTH & SAFETY RULES
The Royal Mail moggy, who is now facing eviction from the premises – MEET the Royal Mail moggy facing eviction from the sorting room by an ‘elf n’ safety diktat .
TAXIDERMY ART BOOK
A KITTEN'S teaparty and rat's playing dominoes are the bizarre creations by one of Britain's great eccentrics pictured in an incredible new book .