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.
Kevin Silva, 52 from Indiana in the USA, has spent an estimated £65K ($100K) on Batman trinkets over the years, and even keeps his 2,500-item haul in his very own basement 'Bat Cave' .
An adorable rescue dog who had her eyes gouged out by thugs in Romania has found a loving home in the UK .
Fetching a tiny carrot and a head-shaped snowball, a red squirrel builds the perfect snowman .
Here's a APPY solution that should brighten up a wet weekend away camping - a wood powered stove that also recharges your smartphone .
An adorable little squirrel wakes from a nap and pops out his tongue for the camera .
SKIPPING on the spot, an adorable little owl embraces the 'running man' challenge .
TUGGING on the wing of his sibling, this needy owl is after some attention .
A woman with an irrational fear of toilets goes POTTY on the loo and runs away when she flushes, terrified it will swallow her up .
NEW DELHI, A woman activist of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party crosses a police barricade near the residence of ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi during a protest against the recent rape of a five-year-old girl in New Delhi, India, April 21, 2013 .
THIS LITTLE squirrel tries to keep himself snug as snow starts to fall around him .
MEET the little lion of suburbia with a mane that makes him look like a mini-king of the jungle .
A diving mad couple have finally taken the plunge, having tied the knot 30ft underwater .