I've a solid group of friends and a reasonably successful career as a writer. I'm not wealthy but comfortable. But my mind is all over the place. I'm not ill but my mental state is volatile. I lose my temper with my children and get irritable with my husband. I fret about mistakes I may not have made, and make diet and exercise plans I don't stick to. What I needed was a boot camp for the mind. So, I decided I'd work one out for myself, writes EMMA YOUNG.

Ma Zhiqiu, 47, gave birth prematurely to twins Zhang Hangjun and Zhang Yuanjun 21 years ago. And while life changes overnight for every new mother, Ma's world turned upside down. Shocked at his children's severe health problems, her husband sunk into depression. The couple divorced, leaving Ma to quit her well-paid job and become the sole carer for her two heavily dependent boys. And as these poignant images show, every day is a struggle. One of the boys, Hanguin, weighs 250 kilos, and cannot move off the bed or communicate with others, requiring round-the-clock assistance. However with her support and encouragement, Yuanjun has won several awards for his performances singing Italian and Russian classical pieces. Despite her exhausting plight, Ma insists she has no regrets.

In September 2011, Taylor Hale, then 14 years old, fell off the hood of a car while horsing around with friends and sustained a traumatic brain injury (left). After a week in a coma, the high school freshman from Iowa suffered a brain hemorrhage and was taken off life support. But against overwhelming odds, Hale woke up. More than three years later, the graduating high school senior (pictured right with her boyfriend) says it was God who saved her life.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Paul Mason, 54, weighed 70st but after losing 46st in five years surgeons in New York have removed his unsightly folds left after his dramatic weight loss. Days afterwards he has been able to stroll a short distance through the city with his partner Rebecca Mountain and he said: 'Good riddance. I'm glad it's gone.' The former postman, from Ipswich, Suffolk, became thinner after getting gastric bypass surgery in 2010 but the NHS have refused to give him an operation to remove excess skin.

Dawn Jackson, from Blackpool, assumed she was perfectly healthy until her baby died in the womb. A month later she collapsed and doctors discovered a blood clot, and cancer in her liver which had spread to her bowels and spleen. She was dealt the devastating blow it was terminal, and so her fiancé Dean proposed immediately, knowing she had always wanted to get married. The couple had a whirlwind romance (they are pictured, left, at their wedding), but the disease soon took hold and she died two days later. She is survived by two children, Aydia, four and Karla, one (pictured, inset, with their father). Her husband, Mr Jackson, said: 'I've so many happy memories of our lives, holidays and days out with children, Dawn was a wonderful person.'

Kim Chilvers, 52, from Harrow, was diagnosed with melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, after a mark on her right cheek started to darken suddenly (left). The mother-of-three believes her disease was triggered by UVA rays shining through her car windscreen as she drove to her office job. 'I had a mark on my face for years, which looked like an age spot or freckle,' she said. 'In 2012 it started to grow darker and larger and I went to the doctors but was told not to worry. But it got worse. I drove to work two or three times a week and was often in my car with the sun beating through the window. I didn't realise it was giving me cancer.' She has since had surgery, where specialists grafted a piece of skin from her neck on to her cheek to cover the wound (right).

Angela Sykes, 38, from Manchester, was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2013 (she is pictured, inset, before her diagnosis). She underwent radiotherapy, and had major surgery to remove the tumour, which involved taking muscle from her leg to reconstruct her throat. But the operation left her unable to speak above a whisper. Two weeks ago, during a routine scan, doctors said the cancer had spread to her lungs and is terminal. She decided to marry her partner Lee Ashworth, 40, before it is too late (the couple are pictured, left and right). He said: 'I cannot wait to marry Angela, she is an amazing woman. What she has been through is devastating. She is really strong and I hope she can inspire others to fight this disease.'

Rachel Margison, 32 from Yorkshire, reached 28st (left) after snacking on 1kg of cheese a week which is equivalent to 8st worth a year. After being asked to become a godmother to her best friend's daughter Lola (centre) she ditched the dairy and is now just over 12st and a slinky size 10 (right). She said: 'My favourite snack was a big Cheddar sandwich, made with two thick slices of bread and lashings of butter. It didn't matter what I was eating, I'd find a way to put cheese on it.'

Franco Villavicencio, from Moreno, Argentina, has progeria, a rare disease which ages the body - but not the mind - at eight times the normal rate (he is pictured, left, and with his mother, right). This is the same disease the character of Benjamin Button, played by Brad Pitt, suffered (pictured inset). He loves cartoons and playing with his siblings, but as he grows his body will deteriorate. A 10 year old progeria child will have the appearance of an octogenarian with symptoms including baldness, arthritis and heart problems, but the mind of a 10 year old. Sufferers do not usually live past the age of 13.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE: Tawny Willoughby has been praised for her bravery after sharing a shocking photo of her face covered with bloody scars and blisters as a stark warning to sunbed users, pictured top right. Since being diagnosed at 21 she has had basal cell carcinoma five times and squamous cell carcinoma once. 'If anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in the tanning bed and sun here you go! This is what skin cancer treatment can look like,' she wrote. Now a nurse, pictured top left, Willoughby used to be a sun bed addict when she was a younger and had a tanning bed at home, pictured bottom center.

Twins Freda and Doris Latham have just celebrated their 101st birthday alongside sisters Gladys, 96, and Phyllis, 93, near Barnstaple, Devon, and believe they are now the world's oldest siblings. Between the four of them, they have lived through 19 Prime Ministers, five monarchs and survived two World Wars. Their combined age of 391 years beats the previous record of the world's oldest set of sisters who had a combined age of 386. They put their long and record-breaking life down to a healthy British diet and claim to avoid spicy, rich food. Their combined total age figure would have been higher but their other two sisters Amy, 95, and May, 98, passed away recently (pictured together bottom right inset). Pictured centre, from left: Gladys Camp, Phyllis Friend, Doris Latham and Freda Latham. Pictured inset in the 1960s, from left: Freda, Doris, May, Amy, Phyllis and Gladys.

Had the nail struck just a millimetre to the left or right, the 27-year-old landscaper would have suffered major damage, doctors describing the case in the New England Journal of Medicine said. The nail did not impale his eyeball, but reached almost to the tip of top of his other eye (pictured, left and right, in CT scans).

While we might think that opting for any sandwich is a healthy choice, there are a myriad sarnies out there which contain more fat, calories and sugar than junk foods such as burgers and pizzas. Here FEMAIL reveals some the lowest calorie sandwiches on the high street. These include (clockwise from top left): Marks & Spencer's Count on Us chicken with no-mayo dressing; Sainsbury's egg and cress; Boots' roast chicken salad; Gregg's chargrilled chicken oval bite; Pret's wild crayfish and rocket, and Subway's low-fat beef sub.

Amy Caddick, 25, from Liverpool, suffered a life-threatening reaction after visiting a salon to get a celebrity-inspired 'dip dye. sported by the likes of Khloe Kardashian and Jessica Alba. She said: 'The pain was agonising. My kids were too scared to even look at me.' Doctors later warned her the severe allergic reaction could have closed her airways completely, eventually suffocating her. She said: 'Never in a million years did I think that treating myself to a new hairdo would turn out this way.'

After Roger Bryson, 48, Wirral, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, his wife Julia, 38, started a heartwarming blog, Rainbeaubelle, to share the pain, absurdity and flashes of humour she still manages to find in their situation. The journalist says she has been overwhelmed by the positive response from strangers, as she and Roger try to create lasting memories for their children Sam, six, and Florence, two, in the brief time they have left together.

Four years ago Tom Cooper, 28, from Burnley, Lancashire, began noticing lumps on his neck. Friends urged him to go to the doctor, who put it down to an infection. But he became increasingly worried about the lumps, and began googling symptoms. He discovered he was actually suffering from Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, a rare form of nasal cancer. Despite numberous rounds of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the father-of-two has been given the devastating news his condition is terminal. Now, he is being cared for by his wife, Tammy, 26, and his two young daughters Tienna, seven, and Ziani, four. Mrs Cooper said: 'Tom is the most selfless man I know, he's been so brave and courageous throughout his fight and despite the shock, he's still smiling.'

EXCLUSIVE: A MailOnline investigation has tracked down unscrupulous Chinese factories selling deadly DNP diet pills that have killed six Britons and 60 people worldwide. It comes just weeks after 21-year-old Eloise Parry, from Shrewsbury, was 'burned alive' by the drug. Despite being told that we wanted to put the poisonous powder into capsules and use them as slimming pills and import them into the UK, which is illegal, two Chinese drugs factories struck a deal to sell our investigators 30kg of the drug for 840 US dollars.

Louise Robey, 38, from Kent, was diagnosed with lymphangioleiomyomatosis disease, which causes the walls of the cells in the lungs to thicken, restricting the flow of oxygen. She first visited doctors last year after noticing she was left gasping for breath after climbing a flight of stairs. Chest scans revealed the mother-of-two's lungs resembled those of a person who had smoked 40 cigarettes a day for 40 years. But Mrs Robey has never smoked, compelling doctors to look for another cause. In August last year, they found their answer, diagnosing her with LAM disease. Over time the condition worsens and women, like Mrs Robey, are left relying on an oxygen tank. Some patients end up needing a lung transplant, which can extend their lives, but the procedure is not considered a cure. She said: 'It really is scary and terrifying and it is the most frightening thing I have ever faced in my life, without a doubt.'

Issac Michael Hall, pictured with his parents Michelle and Brad, is about five pounds heavier and seven inches longer than the average baby. Michelle told people she was nine months pregnant for the last three months. Issac is the largest baby delivered at West Penn hospital in Ellwood City in at least the last 30 years.

Iowa high school teacher John Cisna made headlines last year when he lost an incredible amount of weight on all McDonald's diet. A year later, McDonald's has confirmed that Cisna is a brand ambassador for the company, giving speaking engagements about his weight loss journey across the country. However, the company specified that Cisna is not a company employee, but he does get paid for his speaking engagements.

Doctors blamed Jemma Jones' dramatic weight loss on an eating disorder. It almost cost her life. After years of pain, tests revealed she had a tumour in her oesophagus. 'Even now, two years after chemotherapy, I still pinch myself that I am here,' she says.