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
TROUBLESOME PYLON MEETS EXPLOSIVE END
THIS is the EXPLOSIVE moment when a 50 metre high pylon came crashing down to earth in a rural field .
CAMOUFLAGED NORTHERN POTOO BIRD IS A MASTER OF DISGUISE
A northern potoo shows it is a master of disguise as it perches on a tree stump and blends into the bark .
WOOLWICH MURDER OF BRITISH SOLDIER
Soldiers standing guard outside the Woolwich barracks in London - Two terror suspects are under armed guard in separate hospitals in London after a serving soldier was hacked to death in the street .
MONKEY BUSINESS
GETTING behind the camera, this monkey practices his photography skills on his friends .
BLIND MAN BEATEN WITH BRICK FOR SAYING HELLO
A BLIND man was battered with a brick in a sickening attack by two thugs .
I LIKE MY SALMON ROAR!
A BROWN bear wades through waters in Alaska and waits for his lunch .
GOLDEN EAGLE FESTIVAL
RACING through the mountain range on horseback, the Kazakh people practice their ancient tradition of hunting with golden eagles .
CHINESE FISHERMEN FISHING WITH RARE TECHNIQUE
SAILING peacefully across a river in the early morning light, a fisherman in China keeps a 1000 year old tradition alive .
CHERNOBYL - 28 YEARS ON
TOMORROW (Saturday) marks the 28th anniversary of the nuclear disaster that left the city of Chernobyl devastated .
BACK TO BASICS HOTEL
CAMPED out in the middle of a forest, these unusual hut hotels take you back to basics .
SO ALLERGIC TO WATER I CAN'T EVEN KISS MY FIANCE
A woman with a rare allergy to water has told how the condition is so severe it prevents her from KISSING her fiance .