Claira Hermet, 28, from Kensal Green, London (pictured right), opted to have the surgery after her mother and older sister died from breast cancer and she discovered she carries the faulty BRCA1 gene, which increases a woman's likelihood of developing the disease. The BBC 1Xtra and BT Sport presenter held a goodbye party for her breasts earlier this year (pictured centre), before undergoing surgery four months ago. After having the operation, she says she has a new-found sense of confidence and self-worth (she is pictured left, on a holiday to Ibiza in June). She said: ''Prior to the operation I didn't know how my body was going to look. I wondered if I would wear a bikini, if I would look good naked, if I would ever get a boyfriend. But the results were amazing. The operation was a massive turning point, in terms of how I feel about my body. It allowed me to be grateful for my body. The fact I could wear a bikini, and didn't look in the mirror and hate what I saw.I could even sunbathe topless on one day of my holiday.'

People with a type of colour blindness called deuteranopia confuse red and green, and may struggle with everyday tasks like picking out a certain coloured crayon or telling if meat is cooked, according to Professor Jay Neitz, of the University of Washington. The tops images show what a person with colour blindness may see every day, (from left to right, meat and numbers in circles) while the bottom images show how a person with normal vision sees the world. According to the charity Colour Blindness Awareness, 60 per cent of sufferers experience many problems in everyday life

Nicole Dobbie, 28, from Selkirk, Scotland, began picking at her skin at the age 12, when she started suffering severe anxiety (she is pictured, left). The condition got so bad she had to be home-schooled. She was diagnosed with dermatillomania, an impulse-control disorder where a person is compelled to repeat a particular action. Now, Mrs Dobbie is housebound, spending hours a day gouging her skin until it bleeds. Sometimes she will start picking before bed and emerge at 4:30am covered in sores. Her body is so scarred (pictured top and bottom, centre) that last August, she began to tattoo herself to cover them up (some of her tattoos are pictured, centre and right). Her 27 tattoos help her feel confident, as the condition leaves her depressed and filled with self-loathing, she said. 'When I have a flare up I pick my skin until it bleeds. It makes me feel angry and disappointed and the next week will be spent hiding in my bedroom,' she said. 'Not only do I have to live with the shame of it, hiding my body away even when it's scorching outside, but I also have to deal with those who judge me and just don't understand.'

An incredible set of photos document Jaycie Jones life from the very first moments when she was no more than cells in an IVF lab in Nottingham, top, to a scan, bottom left, her birth, bottom centre, and now her at 15-months, right. They have been shared by her parents, Her parents, Paula Chapman, 37, and Paul Jones, 34, sought help from the CARE fertility centre after trying to have a baby for two years without success.

Mohammed Abad, 43, from Edinburgh (pictured left), lost his penis and testicle in a freak car accident when he was six. He ran into the road and was dragged for 600 yards by a car. This month, he was fitted with a bionic penis, which contains two tubes which fill up using liquid from his stomach, allowing him to maintain an erection. It has a button in his testicles which he can press to pump it up, as well as another button which drains the penis after use, so it deflates (the pump is pictured, inset). Today, he revealed he kept his lack of genitalia a secret from his wife, who only found out about his situation on their wedding night (the couple are pictured at their wedding, right). She left him a year ago, a move he claims is due to the fact he could not make love or give her children. He said: 'In our culture, if you're not pregnant three months after you marry, people start to ask questions. Last year she walked out on me - she has needs and I just couldn't provide for them because my operation was taking too long. She's moving on but I understand why she had to leave. We keep in touch.'

Kirsty Eyles, 30, from Feltham, Middlesex, weighed in at 18st 5lb after years of eating takeaways and junk food, left. The 5ft 3in Heathrow Airport employee, who now weighs 9st 13lb, right, says that when she started work, food became her focus. She said: 'After a hard day on my feet as a sales assistant, I could never be bothered to cook, so it was either a KFC on the way home or a Chinese. Soon, I was so big I couldn't run for the bus without gasping for breath.'

Sarah Cole came close to death after she mixed one cup of bleach into her bath water at her home in Dapto, south of Sydney, as a way of treating her eczema. The 29-year-old spent a month in intensive care and a burns unit recovering from her horrific injuries and scarring. Ms Cole had visited a specialist seeking advice about treating her skin condition when she was allegedly advised to use bleach.

Niall Dumigan, 28, who lives in London (pictured right), had been wearing contact lenses since the age of 16, and knew it was not advisable to sleep in them. But at 18, he got drunk and failed to take them out. The next day, he woke up with the lenses stuck to his eyes, and had to endure them being scraped off by an optician. He vowed never to repeat the ordeal, but once again slept in his lenses last June. He woke up in absolute agony, a pain he describes as 'like being forced to look directly at the sun'. He was rushed to A&E; at St George's Hospital in Tooting, London, while wearing tin foil glasses his partner had fashioned for him (pictured top and bottom, left), in order to shield his eyes from light and stop the pain. There, nurses said he had an ulcer on his eye, for which he was given eye drops. Since then, he has had laser eye surgery so he never has to wear contact lenses again. Describing the pain, he said: 'It was indescribable - like my eyeballs were being engulfed in flames. I was aware of the dangers associated with sleeping in your contacts but I'd always thought, "Well, it can't be that bad". How wrong I was.'

Lisa Brown, 32, from Wisconsin, is one of 400 people across the world to suffer superior mesenteric artery syndrome, where her aorta and another artery compresses part of the small intestine, making it impossible to eat. In less than two years her weight dropped by 30 per cent, from a healthy 10 stone (left) to just six stone (right and inset). 'I was vibrant, social, healthy and spirited and now I'm in constant pain, rely on others and I'm confined to my home most days,' she said. She has to hook herself up to a feeding tube in her stomach for 16 hours a day to get the nutrition she needs.

Wilf Ford, four, from Lancashire (left), suffers severe atopic eczema, which leaves him in constant pain, his entire body covered in sore, red patches (right and inset) that require treatment every hour. His mother Sarah Scott, 28, has filmed her son, to highlight the constant pain he faces. She hopes to raise enough money to take him to France for treatment, which she hopes will cure him. She said: 'He spends almost every day on the sofa because he's just too itchy, sore and tired to do anything else. People say he will grow out of it and yes he might, but right now I have to watch him go through this agony every single day.'

A new study in The Lancet reveals life expectancy for both sexes rose by 6.2 years, from 65.3 years in 1990 to 71.5 in 2013. Scientists at the University of Washington also found healthy life expectancy - the number of years a person can expect to live in good health - is rising. But in their analysis, they note that because global life expectancy is rising faster than healthy life expectancy, people are enduring more years of illness or disability. The study revealed that heart disease is the leading cause of health loss across the world.

Helen Beaumont, of the University of Manchester, lost her husband Clive to frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 1999 (she is pictured with her husband on their wedding day, left, and alone, top right). He was struck down with the disease at the age of 45, when his behaviour became increasingly erratic. Ms Beaumont describes how he lost his children, Alan and Rachel (pictured bottom right with their father) when put in charge of their care on two occasions, and would come back from shopping trips with only ice cream, but it took years for the disease to be diagnosed. After his death, Ms Beaumont carried out research and discovered that people with the disease have more fluid on their brain than people without it. She hopes the discovery could lead to earlier diagnosis, and could pave the way for new drugs and treatments. She said: 'If families could have an explanation for this erratic behaviour much sooner it would be so much easy - for them and their loved ones who are suffering.'

Reuben Hill (top right), a member of the choir at Imperial College, underwent pioneering treatment at Charing Cross Hospital to remove a golf ball-sized tumour in the part of his brain that deals with language and communication. The PhD student, the only person to be given the laser treatment anywhere in the world outside Canada, feared he might lose his ability to talk and sing following the operation. So, in a poignant moment captured on film, the doctors woke Mr Hill during the surgery and asked him to sing (left) - to check they hadn't damaged key areas of the brain. With the lights dimmed, Mr Hill sang words from the hymn 10,000 Reasons: 'Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me, I'll still be singing when the evening comes.' Now, several months on, the operation has been judged a complete success, although Mr Hill will be monitored closely in the years to come. The surgery used a laser that bounces beams of light off the brain (shown bottom right). The technology can distinguish healthy from diseased tissue, making the operation faster and more accurate.

Bryan Baldwin drew out his pension after being diagnosed with incurable renal cancer in May 2006. The 65-year-old has since spent £20,000 on a new garden - including a fresh lawn and a new patio - and has enjoyed seven luxury holidays with his wife Susan, 53, including time in Las Vegas (top right), Spain (top left), Barbados (bottom right) and Tunisia (bottom left). Their most expensive trip was in 2012, when Mr and Mrs Baldwin enjoyed a tour of south-west America for around £6,000. They have also bought a new flat - a £105,000 two-bedroom property on the Isle of Wight.

Seb Tucknott, 29, of Shoreham, West Sussex, was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a long-term bowel condition, in 2008. He noticed blood when he went to the toilet, and started going to the loo more frequently, up to 40 times a day. He lost 10 kg (1st 8lbs) in two weeks, and was put on steroids to control his condition. They made him lethargic, so in a few years he changed his diet, cutting out sugar, carbohydrates, processed foods and alcohol, and this helped him greatly. But the condition can be affected by stress and tiredness, so he had a flare up this year during the birth of his son Haydn, now seven months old (pictured left and right). His wife, Emily, 32 (pictured right) had a difficult labour, and the stress caused Mr Tucknott to experience diarrhoea for 24 hours, worrying he would miss the birth itself. Now, Mr Tucknott wants to share a graphic and candid account of his story, so other sufferers of bowel conditions don't feel alone. 'I would have loved to have spoken to someone like me when I was first diagnosed,' he said.

Jennifer Gillam, 28, from London, dropped five dress sizes in a year after piling on the pounds having given birth to two children and snacking on fish fingers and chocolate. The part-time supermarket cashier knew she needed to lose weight when she couldn't heave herself up from the floor without help from her husband. She set up a Facebook group to chart her journey and share photos of her transformation.

Ocea Varney, 18 months, from Vancouver, Canada, was born with an abnormally large tongue which stuck out of her mouth (pictured left). While doctors said it was a phase and nothing to worry about, her mother, Melanie Varney, 28 (pictured right with her daughter) knew something was wrong, as Ocea found it difficult to breast feed. After doing research online and finding a specialist, Ocea was diagnosed with Beckwith Wiedemann Syndrome, a congenital overgrowth disorder. A fifth of babies with it develop cancer. At just seven months old, Ocea had surgery to reduce the size of her tongue so it would fit in her mouth, and she continues to be monitored for tumurs. Now, Mrs Varney wants to raise awareness to the condition. She said: 'We want doctors to recognise BWS and ensure families know there is a support network out there for them.'

Marina Hyde, 30, from Coalville, Leicestershire, noticed a few grey hairs and picked up a packet of Schwarzkopf XXL hair dye in Cosmic Blue (pictured inset), which she claims she had been using for ten years. After doing a patch test, she dyed her hair and went to bed, but her scalp soon began to feel itchy. The next day her face swelled up so she couldn't see, and she was rushed for emergency treatment. 'I had a big ball of fat underneath my chin and my lips were all swollen - I looked like the Nutty Professor,' she said (pictured right). When her boyfriend came to visit her in hospital, he didn't recognise her, and her child cried when he saw her. Now, she is taking legal action against the cosmetic firm.

At her first scan, Stephanie Perrin, 34, of Hull, was told her daughter would not live past three weeks old. A placental disorder meant Mrs Perrin's unborn baby girl was not growing properly, doctors said. Baby Mollie, now 17 weeks old (pictured left with her parents), was born 13 weeks premature by emergency Caesarean section, weighing just 1lbs 1oz. She was rushed to neonatal intensive care. It wasn't until she was 25 days old her father could James, 38, could hold her for the first time (pictured right), and she was so tiny his wedding ring fit around her arm. Mollie defied doctors to pull through, and now weighing 5lbs 10oz, her parents are preparing to take her home for the first time. 'I can't believe the moment has finally come for us to take Mollie home,' Mr Perrin said. 'After weeks of watching parents come and go with their own babies, it's finally going to be time to take our little one home.'

Giorgia Lanuzza, from Basingstoke, was diagnosed with psoriasis at the age of 13, shortly after her father died. For years she's faced cruel taunts from strangers and classmates and said she was left feeling a 'freak'. But today the 24-year-old is proudly showing off the painful red patches which cover 97 per cent of her body (left and inset), to encourage other women battling the condition to be proud of their skin. She said: 'I was just a teenager and all I wanted was to be like other girls my age - wearing make-up, pretty clothes and talking about boys. Instead, giant patches of my skin were red and unsightly - I felt like a freak compared to other girls my age and did everything to cover up... Now I've come to terms with psoriasis, I want to help others do the same. We might have conditions that make us look different from other women, but we are still beautiful.'

Antibiotics are designed to kill the bacteria that cause infections. But they also kill off some of the 'good' bacteria in the gut, known to influence digestion and metabolism, suggest Dutch researchers.