Staring up at the big screen Paul Whyley, (left) could not believe his eyes. As he and his wife enjoyed the Stephen Hawking biopic, The Theory of Everything (inset), the 62-year-old's joy turned to shock. Unravelling before his eyes were the symptoms he himself had been suffering. Silently, Mr Whyley ticked off all the signs of motor neurone disease, as the plot of the romantic drama starring Eddie Redmayne progressed. He said: 'There's a scene at the start where Stephen Hawking (right) is running and he suddenly falls over, and I'd had a few falls at work recently. Then he's writing on a blackboard, but he can't reach with his right arm. With my job I had to use a drill to put up blinds, but I was having to put my right arm into position with my left because I couldn't use my right arm. I knew for sure after the scene where they list all the symptoms. I just thought "I've got all of them".

Danny Penman, 10 months old, from Durham, was born with his umbilical cord wrapped four times around his neck. By the time he was four days old, his mother, Shelby, 24, (pictured left with her son) was becoming worried as her son was failing to wake up for feeds. Scans revealed he had a bleed on his brain and he underwent major brain surgery at less than a months old. Afterwards, he contracted a deadly form of meningitis. Doctors said he was 20 minutes from death, and his anxious parents waited to see if he would survive. Miraculously, he beat the disease and is now at home recovering with his family (pictured right). Mrs Penman says: 'Not a day passes that I don't think of all he's been through, and I proudly tell anyone who will listen about his journey and his battle with meningitis.'

Jackie Lindsey, 50, of Wimborne, Dorset, has diagnosed her self with electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS). She says her condition leaves her feeling dizzy, numb, with eye pain and in danger of going into shock when she is exposed to electromagnetic waves. As a result, she has ditched all electrical products in her life, turned off the power in her home and uses candles for light and gas for heating and cooking (pictured right). She wears a protective suit and veil outdoors (pictured left) which has silver woven into the fabric to reflect the magnetic fields around her. And she also uses an electromagnetic field testing device (EMF) to measure the magnetic current in the air, when out in public. She said: 'When I wear it people usually treat me like I'm highly contagious, but I'm past caring. One person described it as a demented beekeeper suit, I thought that was quite right.'

Smiles-R-Us in Carrollton, Georgia is being criticized for using a restraining device called a 'papoose board' to hold down little girls like five-year-old Elizabeth Crow last month.Dad James Crow said that when he and his mother took his daughter Elizabeth to the dentist they heard screaming as they sat in the waiting room but were told that they were not allowed to enter.

Florida-based photographer Kathy Rosario captured her friend's emotional delivery. The healthy newborn - the third child for the mother - was born in a tub of water with the helped of a trained midwife. While water births are thought to ease labor pain, the practice is still considered experimental. In the US, over 98 per cent of births take place in hospitals.

Jan Kelleher, from South Carolina, asked her daughter Sarah to help her dye her hair bright pink, shave it, and style it into a mohawk before chemotherapy makes it fall out. Sarah told Daily Mail Online that the new 'do was completely her mother's idea - but it wasn't totally shocking, since Jan has 'always been adventurous'. After sharing photos of Jan's 'hawk on Reddit, Sarah received messages of support from people who said her mom was really pulling off the hot pink hair.

Dermatologists warn #sunburnart trend in which people allow their skin to burn in tattoo like designs can cause deadly skin cancer, even more so than just sunbathing.'This is where popular culture is clashing with medical advice,' said Dr. Barney Kenet, a New York-based dermatologist to ABC News. 'It's really obvious that sunburn does two things to you: it gives you lines and freckles and wrinkles and it also causes skin cancer especially melanoma,' he added.

Kimberley Ambrose, 25, from Holyhead, North Wales, put a plaster on her son two-year-old Jake's face to stop him scratching a chicken pox scab (mother and son are pictured, left). But when she pulled it off, 'like you would any other plaster', she says it tore the skin from his face, leaving him screaming in pain (pictured right). In hospital, doctors confirmed Jake had not had an allergic reaction to the plaster. Since, the wound has become infected, requiring antibiotics that mean Jake has missed pre-school. Ms Ambrose was given a refund by the Tesco branch that sold her the plaster, but wants the products to be taken off the shelf while they are investigated. She said: 'I don't want any other families to go through what we have gone through. I'm annoyed that the plasters are still sat on the shelf, they should be removed to prevent this happening again.'

Calvin Laidlaw, 49, from Edinburgh, is in a wheelchair due to MS and struggles to feed himself or talk. His son Kai, 2, has leukaemia and needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life (father and son are pictured left and inset). Kai is currently preparing for the treatment in Glasgow (pictured right), which is too far a commute for his father. The family have searched for accommodation in the city but have not been able to find anything suitable, as Calvin has a lot of equipment such as hoists and also has a carer. Last week Mr Laidlaw was forced to stay at The Hilton, the only hotel he could find with vacancies, as it was near the hospital and was wheelchair friendly. But the stay set him back £2,400. The next week he moved into the Plaza, where is currently staying, but that is still costing the family £1,100 a week. The couple have been helped with generous donations from family and friends but are desperate for a more permanent solution to their accommodation crisis. 'I feel like we're being punished more because Calvin is a wheelchair user,' said Mr Laidlaw's fiancé Pamela Neilson, 38.

Beth O'Brien, 14, from Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, used to be a healthy size eight to ten and loved sports (she is pictured left with her mother before her weight loss). But last New Year she decided to eat more healthily and began counting calories on a phone app. Within five months she developed crippling anorexia, locking herself locking herself in her room to exercise and refusing to come out for family meals. She was eventually hospitalised and fed through a tube, but had to be discharged 15 days later as there was no inpatient bed available (pictured right). Consultants called eating disorder units every day to find her a place, but it took until last week to find an available bed which is 100m from her home. Now her mother Fran, 37, believes there should be more support for people with eating disorders. She said: 'If it were any physical illness Beth would not be sat here waiting and that needs to change. It is not acceptable. People within the system have said to me it's in meltdown, is totally inadequate and they just can't cope.'

Inspired by the positive experiences of friends and Radio 4 colleagues Fern Britton and Vanessa Feltz, Jenni Murray has decided to undergo pioneering weight-loss surgery, in a bid to improve her health. Here she reveals the effects of a sleeve gastrectomy.

Extraordinary claims are made for HGH. Some say it can even make you look two decades younger. 'It seemed like magic,' says 40-year-old Aimi Veness, from East Sussex, who started using HGH last August. But doctors are warning of a very dark side to the so-called Peter Pan drug. Aimi is concerned the injections led to her getting lupus.

Neve (left of main picture) and Belle Boitelle (right of main picture) from Leeds were diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at six months old, after becoming unwell and showing signs of bruising. Neve died a month later, while her sister survived nearly two years before succumbing to the disease. Mother Clare, (pictured bottom right with her husband Darren and their son Hiro) said: 'Our hearts and souls are forever broken. This has been a heart-wrenching journey with our beautiful, brave princesses, taken away from us so soon.'

Jannine McHaffie, 25, from Chelmsford, Essex, (pictured left) began suffering severe nosebleeds which a GP misdiagnosed as hayfever. In September 2014 she found a strawberry sized lump in her nose which a GP once again misdiagnosed as a common polyp, a benign growth. Within a month the lump had grown so big it was impacting on her breathing and she was sent for a CT scan, an MRI scan and a biopsy. She was diagnosed with adenoids cystic carcinoma, a rare cancer which affects the salivary glands and rushed to hospital for surgery. Doctors removed her upper teeth, pallet bone, top right jaw, and parts of her cheek bones and reconstructed her face with bone from her right leg (pictured inset and right). Now, while she waits for a final round of radiotherapy, she credits her recovery on her daughter Leylah, three. She said: 'My little girl has been my main focus to get through everything, little does she know she's getting mummy through every day. What started out as a few heavy nosebleeds turned out to be the most horrifying journey of my life.'

Rachael Farrokh (inset, with her husband Rod), a 37-year-old actress from San Clemente, California, made the headlines in May after posting a desperate video plea online, detailing her 10-year battle with anorexia. In the footage, she explained how her condition had declined in recent months - but no hospitals near her San Clemente home would treat her because her 'dangerous' weight made her a 'liability'. The video generated nearly $200,000 in donations. But now, Ms Farrokh has eventually been accepted into the UC San Diego Medical Center after doctors at a hospital in Colorado apparently determined it was too risky for her to be flown there. She is currently undergoing treatment at the center - and has even managed to stand up with the help of a specialized machine for the first time in months (left and right).

Grant Botti,14, of Arkansas (left and bottom right), woke up in excruciating pain on Tuesday and felt something strange in his ear. He grabbed a hold of it and pulled out a four-inch long centipede (top right). Botti's mother said that the family doesn't know where the critter came from. Botti suffered abrasions to his ear drum.

Bobbing up and down on the spot, straw hat on and with a huge smile on her face, she looks like any other festival goer. But for most of Joanne Milne's life, it was a scenario she could only dream of. Until last year, the 41-year-old's world had been silent. Born with the rare condition Usher Syndrome, Ms Milne, from Gateshead, had been deaf since birth. In her mid-20s, the cruel condition also began to claim her sight. However she made the headlines last year (right) when she became able to hear for the first time, thanks to cochlear implants. As she heard words being spoken to her for the first time, moving images showed her overwhelmed with emotion, fighting back tears and gasping to catch her breath. This weekend, she achieved another dream - going to Glastonbury for the first time. After speaking on BBC Radio 5 live back in April, Ms Milne explained her dream was to one day go to Glastonbury. The organisers of the festival heard her and offered her a ticket. Yesterday, the station captured a heartwarming video clip of her at the festival, watching Burt Bacharach sing live.

Emily Bunce, 23, a biomedical scientist from Stoke, was once a size 20 but shed 3st 6lb and six dress sizes and is now a svelte 10. And her efforts certainly seem to have paid off, with Miss Bunce now in line to take the Miss England beauty title after being crowned Miss Mercia 2015. Miss Bunce, who says winning would be a 'dream come true', will take part in this weekend's semi-final at Kelham Hall in Nottinghamshire.

Bethany Churcher, 21, from Beaulieu in Hampshire, was diagnosed with compulsive eating disorder at 14, and was so heavy by the age of 21 she was told she would be dead in six months (pictured left). The teenager's size meant she had already suffered a mini stroke and needed emergency surgery on her gall bladder, an operation doctors warned her family she may not survive. Eventually, doctors agreed she could have £5,000 taxpayer-funded gastric band surgery. She managed to lose 18 stone after the procedure, and is now a size 16 (she is pictured centre during her weight loss). Now, she weighs 16st (pictured right) and is working as a model. She also runs a charity helping others with eating disorders. She said: 'I am a cautionary tale. I don't want others to be like me. It terrifies me I could get that big again. But I've promised myself I won't let that happen. I don't want to put my life at risk.'