A mother told she had terminal cancer by doctors who ignored her pleas for help 13 times has made a miracle recovery following the UK's first operation of its kind. Ruth McDonagh was repeatedly turned away by medics over the course of two years despite suffering from the classic symptoms of bowel cancer. By the time it was diagnosed, she was told she had just 18 months left to live as a huge tumour in her bowel had grown so large it was almost inoperable. Her only option was a £100,000 operation only available in the US which was certain to leave her paralysed from the waist down. But at the eleventh hour a team of UK doctors trained in the American technique agreed to carry out Ruth's surgery in a 13-hour operation never before carried out in this country.
Raising his arms above his head and lying flat on his back, a polar bear stretches as he sprawls out across the ice .
A coroner stunned an inquest into a honeymooner who died abroad today by asking her husband if he was involved in her drugs death .
FEAST your eyes onthe £3K luxury yurts that rock legend Mick Jagger will be basking in between Glastonbury performances this weekend .
A DETERMINED great blue heron holds on tightly to its prey as the furry gopher attempts to wriggle free .
BALANCING 30 metres above ground, these slackliners take the expression of living dangerously one step further, by tightrope walking NAKED .
SURROUNDED by divers, a hungry green sea turtle enjoys being the centre of attention .
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 .
A Crohn's sufferer has told of her humiliation after she soiled herself when a Co-op staff member reportedly refused to let her use the toilet .
A northern potoo shows it is a master of disguise as it perches on a tree stump and blends into the bark .
COURAGEOUS CLIMBERS scale frozen waterfalls in Canada, as the ice threatens to collapse beneath them .
These are the faces of orphans suffering from the horrifying effects of chemical warfare .
A Zumba-mad grandma has lost almost 14st after becoming addicted to the popular dance craze .