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 middle spotted woodpecker swoops into her nest and feeds her young in a forest in Trentino, Italy .
A teenage girl has grown back her entire face after being struck down by a rare skin disease .
A woman has told how her addiction to eating bath bubbles during her pregnancy was better than SEX .
PAWS for thought as you feast your eyes on this rare bear bathing session .
A couple have tied the knot in a spectacular Harry Potter-themed wedding which cost £45,000 .
Pic By HotSpot Media - GAME, SET-TEE AND MATCH: COUPLE INSTALL TENNIS COURT IN LOUNGE- In Pic - Ben Walters’ message to West Midlands Police via social media .
A group of whale sharks gather to feed underneath a fisherman’s boat off the coast of Papua, Indonesia .
If you had to scrape the snow off your car this morning or slip-slide your way into work over icy pavements spare a thought for these little critters .
An Australian explorer has travelled the globe with a toy pig, known as Travel Piggy, in search of a missing cuddly companion .
These adorable pictures show the moment two cuddly red panda cubs take their first look at the outside world and are weighed for the very first time .
Pictures of John Anslow a prisoner who escaped from a prison escort van in North Worcestershire Monday, 23 January .