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.
From a platter of finger licking chicken wings to a bowl of Chinese noodle soup, these foodie snaps are enough to make your savoury saliva glands drool .
SITTING on a burning sofa unable to move, one man turns his terrifying dreams into reality .
BALANCING 30 metres above ground, these slackliners take the expression of living dangerously one step further, by tightrope walking NAKED .
TRYING their best to wriggle away, three adorable tiger cubs receive their health checks at Chester Zoo .
SURROUNDED by divers, a hungry green sea turtle enjoys being the centre of attention .
SNUGGLED up in the hay away from the elements, this adorable hoglet has sought solace with a familiar friend .
A BLIND man was battered with a brick in a sickening attack by two thugs .
FLAUNTING its new accessory, a fashionable green dumpy tree frog poses for the camera while wearing a SNAIL as a hat .
This starling and prairie dog will not back down an inch as they have a fearsome stand-off over who gets to eat a nut .
AN EXERCISING turtle and an ice-skating chick are hardly everyday exploits in the animal community .
This is the amazing moment two white-tailed kites take an in-flight meal - exchanging prey at 100 foot high in mid air .
MEET the little lion of suburbia with a mane that makes him look like a mini-king of the jungle .