She was the 18th century celebrity who made men faint in awe of her beauty by her very presence. But her beauty - and her vanity - led to her demise as the lead-based make-up she insisted on plastering on daily resulted first in the loss of her looks, then deadly blood poisoning. Now the grand 7ft mirror in which Maria Gunning, the former Countess of Coventry, admired her stunning reflection has been auctioned off for more than £300,000. Labelled the first victim of vanity, Maria died aged 27 in 1760 after her love of make-up resulted in her untimely death. The 253-year-old mirror sold well above its estimate even though her condition meant she the society hostess used it for a matter of just months. A glorious George II giltwood overmantel design, it was bought for her by her husband The Sixth Earl of Coventry in 1759, who is said to have been so frustrated by his wife's love of make up that he would chase her around the dinner table with a handkerchief, trying wipe it from her face.
A mum-of-two has worn the same t-shirt for an entire year to raise awareness of a 1 in 7 million condition that prevents her daughter from talking .
A five-week-old newborn from Fife has become the UK’s youngest beauty pageant baby .
A woman whose daughter committed suicide after being raped as a child, has revealed she donated her organs - saving four peoples’ lives .
LINED up one by one on a deer’s back, these little birds give their wings a break as they catch a ride across London .
Sophie Carr, 23, from Swindon, was just six when her older brother Alex, then 12, abused her during a game of mummies and daddies .
Britons have finally received some good news about the weather with temperatures expected to reach 30 degrees this weekend .
AT first glance these images could easily be mistaken for photographs, but they are in-fact real life drawings created using nothing but coloured pencils .
In the calm waters of Greenland, gigantic icebergs dwarf everything around them .
Peering curiously into a basket hanging off the arms of a snowman, this little squirrel appears fascinated by the snowy figure .
A man has spent almost £100K on lip fillers, Botox and designer clothing in a bid to look like Kim Kardashian .
Kaitlin pictured aged nine - Heart pounding, Kaitlin Womack stared in shock at a Facebook post on her phone .
AN ANOREXIC dental nurse whose weight plummeted to less than four stone has won her NHS fight for more treatment .