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.
Housands of cushions handmade as gifts for Olympics athletes may go to waste after London 2012 KNITWITS stitched up volunteers by refusing to allow them to hand them out .
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Oscar Pistorius entered a courtroom Monday for the start of his murder trial, walking past the victim's mother who says she came to court so she can ‘really look him in the eyes .
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With one hand rested on his belly and the other propping his head up, this lazy lizard takes an afternoon break .
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A carefree bear cub reclines in the water with his feet raised in the air .