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.
A survivor of abuse has bravely waived her anonymity to tell how she was sexually assaulted from the age of nine - by her depraved grandad .
HEARTWARMING belongings lie abandoned in this eerie former dairy farm which has been left to crumble away for decades .
AN ANGRY giraffe gave a bush-riding cyclist a scare when he stomped his £2K bike into the dirt .
THESE kingfishers prove no rod is needed as they go fishing for their dinner .
This is the moment a nimble red fox and a lumbering Alaskan brown bear were locked in a tense stand-off .
A former food addict who had spent her whole life dreaming of romance shed an astonishing 12st 7lbs to experience love for the first time .
SHOWING off her best assets for the camera, this cheeky orangutan is in the mood for love, puckering up her lips to blow the biggest kiss she can .
FROM a Kung-Fu professional to a mini incredible hulk, these are the babies you wouldn't want to mess with .
A mother-of-three who weighed almost 16st has revealed how she lost 7 .
An adorable young fallow deer peers over its shoulder and is greeted by a cheeky jackdaw crow sitting on its back .
HOTSPOT MEDIA - BRAVE TOT ALLERGIC TO SUN: Leighton Brownrigg, 2 .
THE CRAZE for mimicking the video game Streetfighter has spread to the streets of London .