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 woman who blew £12k of her student loan on junk food and booze has lost 10st after ditching her unhealthy habits .
Walking down the street in her local town, heads turn as Jessica Villafane passes by .
FROM ICE bubbles to boiling lava, these photographs highlight the stunning shapes and patterns found in nature .
A northern potoo shows it is a master of disguise as it perches on a tree stump and blends into the bark .
AN EXERCISING turtle and an ice-skating chick are hardly everyday exploits in the animal community .
A photographer has captured stunning photographs of the Milky Way above picturesque landscapes in the UK and Italy .
WITH A wide smile plastered across his face, this little gecko is ready for his close up .
A woman has told how she fled to Australia, after a one night stand burned down her house .
SOARING through the air, a hungry white-tailed kite prepares to snatch a vole from his mother’s claws .
A cheeky owl fancies a game of hide and seek as it peeps out from behind a tree .
A scoliosis sufferer was heartbroken to learn surgery would stop her dancing - but she battled through the pain to complete her GCSE dance exams and earn A* .
A young woman has told how she has been robbed of her fertility and now faces an uncertain future after she was diagnosed with cervical cancer at the age of just 22 .