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
MESMERISING STAIRWAY SHOTS
STAIRWAY obsessed photographers have captured psychedelic shots that will mesmerise you .
PELICANS RUFFLE EACH OTHER'S FEATHERS
THIS is the moment one irritated pelican nearly swallows the entire head of his unlucky competitor .
BATTY ABOUT BATMAN - MAN SPENDS £65K ON COLLECTION
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' .
BRITISH BEACH-LIFE SPLIT SHOTS
UNDERWATER and above-water seaside shots show the best of British beach-life .
BROTHER SEXUALLY ABUSED ME AGED 6 AND TOLD ME HE'D GET CANCER IF I DIDN'T LET HIM
Sophie Carr, 23, from Swindon, was just six when her older brother Alex, then 12, abused her during a game of mummies and daddies .
AMAZING PEN ART
FROM THE world famous Girl with a Pearl Earring painting to a jaguar in the grass, these incredible drawings are created from coloured ballpoint pens .
OH DEER: MOMENT DEER CRASHES THROUGH WINDSCREEN OF BUS
With no luck at the front of the bus, the deer runs around the center seats trying to escape through the window – THIS is the astonishing moment a DEER crashed through the front windshield of a bus before it went hysterically running around the vehicle .
100K BARONESS THATCHER COLLECTION
WELCOME to the drawing room that is home to the £100K world’s greatest collection of Margaret Thatcher autographed objects .
BEING BRITNEY'S LOOKALIKE HAS EARNED ME £300K
A former waitress who quit serving tables to become a professional Britney lookalike has told how her incredible likeness has earned her £300,000 as a full time doppelganger .
ATTEMPTED MURDER: EX PARTNER STABBED ME WITH A KNIFE IN BROAD DAYLIGHT - THANKFULLY GOOD SAMARITAN INTERVENED & SAVED MY LIFE
Marina Afonina, now 51, from Northampton, met Ioan Budea in 2006 .
WAVE-ING GOODBYE TO RUSH HOUR
HOTSPOT MEDIA - WAVE-ING GOODBYE TO RUSH HOUR: WHILE most workers endure commuting chaos by road or rail everyday, one entrepreneur has come up with a novel way to get to the office - by KAYAK .
I LOST 10ST AFTER MY SON DREW ME AS A BLOB
A 20st mum-of-four who was dangerously obese has lost half her body weight after her son drew her as a BLOB at school .