Angela Hartlin, 29, from Nova Scotia, Canada, became a prisoner in her own home due to the constant picking of her face, arms and chest due to dermatillomania (left and inset). Doctors said she would never recover, and she became depressed and even attempted suicide. She made a documentary to raise awareness to the condition, which was seen by a consultant psychiatrist, who contacted her. After 12 weeks of therapy Ms Hartlin was able to tackle some of the underlying issues that caused the picking, and her skin soon healed. Her beautiful wedding photos of her marriage to husband Jason show her incredible transformation (right). Ms Hartlin said: 'I'm still not pick free - I do have urges every single day and it's a long process but I want people to know they aren't alone, there is resources out there to help them. Coming out in public has taken a burden off my shoulders. I don't have to hide this other part of me.'

James Brumpton, 26, from Manchester, weighed 21st 3lb aged 16 (left). After losing five stone in two years, he went back to stuffing junk food (inset), thinking he wouldn't be a 'victim' to weight gain again - but he ended up even heavier than before, hitting 20st 9lb. But he's lost the weight once more and is now in the best shape of his life (right), hitting the gym six times a week. 'To me, 20 stone was the point between unhealthy and a real problem,' said James, adding that it was already affecting his health, which was particularly frightening as a teenager.

'That's karma' was a pretty standard Twitter response (inset) to the pictures I posted (right) after I suffered a seizure in the middle of a busy London road in which my fall was broken only by my face and teeth going through my lower lip. I'm no doctor. But I am certain it wasn't karma. It was epilepsy.This is the first time I've chosen to share a private part of my life and pictures of my smashed face. It may be news to you, but it's old news to me. I have lived with epilepsy for 20 years, dislocating my shoulder more than 40 times as a result of such seizures, writes KATIE HOPKINS.

Reggie Hanson was given a 20 per cent chance of survival by doctors at in the neonatal unit of Bradford Royal Infirmary when he was born in June (pictured top left). He spent months in the specialist unit at the hospital with parents Danielle Stoakes and Matt Hansom by his bedside (top middle and right). They took pictures of him every day, documenting his progress including first cuddles and smiles (bottom left).He was finally taken home to Skegness last month (bottom middle and right) where they are enjoying being a 'real family'. 'If Reggie's Journey gives hope to one family who's going through what Matt and I went through then I'll be happy,' Danielle said.

Michelle Cooke, 33, (right) from Cobham Surrey, was astonished to learn she was expecting twins and even more shocked to find out they were identical. She has an identical twin Sarah (left) and gave birth to Elsie (left) and Marnie (right) in September. She said: 'Then to find out that I was pregnant with identical twins was just unbelievable. I rang my identical twin Sarah and told her and she just screamed down the phone. She couldn't believe it either.' Experts said the chances of it happening once were about 3 in 1000 so to have it happen again by chance was 'very rare.'

Size 26 Roisin Curran (left and centre left), 30, from County Down, Northern Ireland, who used to consumed 4,000 calories a day, struggled to find any festive outfits that would fit her size 26 frame for her work party. The retail worker, who opted for a portion-control diet combined with exercise, was forced to cut through the elastic of a Santa costume so that she could fit her 19st 7lb figure in. She's now lost an impressive nine stone leaving her fitting a size 10 and weighing 10st (right).

Sarah Hay, 28, who plays Claire Robbins in the Starz series Flesh and Bone, said there was 'a lot of controversy' about her curvy figure when she started her career as a professional ballerina. The actress, who has been dancing with German company Semperoper Dresden for six seasons (left), said she was told by one of her dance teachers that her breasts were 'distracting' when she was on stage.

Olivia Key,18, of Hull, noticed her abdomen swelling last year, but thought her body was changing. Then, she began suffering stomach pains so agonising she could barely get out of bed. Her stomach was so swollen she looked eight months pregnant (right). She went to hospital, where doctors discovered she had a tumour in her left ovary, and the organ was surrounded by a cyst the size of a watermelon (inset). She was rushed into surgery at St James's Hospital in Leeds where medics removed the huge cyst - which contained four litres of fluid - as well as her ovary and fallopian tube. Now, she is 'overjoyed' as tests reveal she is cancer-free. Commenting on her huge growth, she said: 'It was the size of a watermelon, everyone was horrified that I could have something that huge in my stomach. I have a small frame so for my stomach to be that big a lot of people thought I could be pregnant.'

Lauren Paris, a Queensland blogger, has decided it is time to stop breastfeeding her two-year-old twin daughters and posed for an intimate photo to mark the occasion (pictured).
The mother of four children under the age of five with her husband Sam (pictured inset) breastfed each of her children and said it was not only a great bonding experience but was also cheaper and convenient. Since she has been consistently pregnant or breastfeeding since 2009, Mrs Paris said she felt ready to have her body back.

WARNING: SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND THIS FOOTAGE UPSETTING. Charlie Hambley, from South Wales, gave MailOnline permission to publish the video of his grandfather's stroke in order to raise awareness and help others in the same situation know what to do. The film shows his grandfather Alan, 78, report his eye is burning (top left) and begin to drive erratically. He has to pull over and says he 'feels funny'. It becomes clear he is having a stroke as he mumbles incoherently, seemingly in pain. Mr Hambley is also hears helping his grandfather and trying not to panic. Finally, an ambulance takes Alan to hospital (bottom left), and Mr Hambley reports his blood pressure is now stable (right). Writing in the video, Mr Hambley said: 'I'm sharing my experience with you in the hope that someone, somehow will learn something from this. Please let this inspire you to research and learn about strokes, it may come in handy one day.'

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: Grace Havard, 21, from Surrey, spent five months in hospital following the crash (left). She was taken to a specialist trauma centre at St George's Hospital in Tooting where she spent a month in an induced coma and five months recovering. The student has had to learn how to walk again and underwent gruelling physiotherapy after the car crash in April last year. She has since taken up running and completed two half marathons for charity. He next challenge will be the London Marathon in April next year - two years after the devastating accident and will raise money for the hospital which saved her. She said: 'I am so grateful to them, which is why I wanted to run a marathon in their honour and to raise money for the hospital.'

Jayne Harris, 52, was leading a healthy lifestyle, going swimming five times a week and was eating healthily. But she had an undiagnosed heart condition and could have died 'at any tim'e, the coroner said. On the day she collapsed, she was delighted to reach her target weight at Weight Watchers, her husband Chris told the hearing into her death. He now wants her death to serve as a warning to other middle-aged women to seek help if they have chest pains. He said: 'We don't associate heart disease with women, we think about men in their 70s collapsing on the golf course,'

Portion sizes have ballooned in the last few decades - with people filling their plates to the brim and cleaning them of every last morsel. British retailers are selling food in bigger and bigger packages - with the average supermarket pizza increasing from 200g to more than 250g in the last two decades alone. Leading health scientists at Cambridge and Oxford universities warned today that this trend needs to be urgently reversed in order to tackle Britain's obesity crisis. And they advise that people eat off smaller plates to help moderate their diets. Taking portion sizes back to 1950s would halve some of today's meals.

The human brain may be one of the most mysterious objects in the universe, but there's one thing we all know for certain: men's and women's brains are wired in completely different ways that make the two sexes so very unlike one another. It's the scientific truth that sparked the saying 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus', after all. But a new study has called this into question, with research suggesting it is wrong to say men have one type of grey matter and women another. An analysis of the brain scans of 1,400 men and women claims to show that entirely 'male' or 'female' brains are extremely rare, with most being 'inter-sex' - or somewhere in between.

One part of the female anatomy is growing the fastest: our breasts. Experts say the increase is as much as 6.3cm in 100 years. Britain's boobs some of the biggest in the world - ahead of America, France and Japan. This week, it was revealed that big breasts are behind an epidemic of backache, with one in five UK women under 40 admitting to suffering from debilitating back or neck pain. Breast reduction operations are on the rise in the UK, up by 11 per cent to 5,476 a year since last year. They've almost doubled since 2008, when there were just 3,845. Around a third of these are carried out on the NHS.

Anne Ziegenhorn (left), 44, had a slew of dangerous symptoms including memory and vision loss, sores all over her body, and fatigue. She grew unable to speak and put on 60lbs. Over the course of two years, the Florida resident visited at least 23 doctors, who all misdiagnosed her wit things like lupus and thyroid problems. She finally saw a specialist who told her that one of her implants was filled with mold (bottom right). Though the mold only grew on the inside, it soon spread to the outside as well when she stored it in her fridge (top right) Anne is now working to educate other women about the risks with her organization, The Implant Truth Survivors (TITS) Committee.

Regularly drinking too much alcohol leads to anxiety, depression, thread veins, brittle nails, dry hair, weight gain and a weakened immune system, an infographic by driet.co.uk shows. It warns 52 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women drink more than recommended guidelines. The team behind the infographic said: 'In the same way that people watch their calories and go on a food diet when they want to lose weight or improve their overall health, the driet works the same way but with a specific focus on alcoholic drinks. It challenges you to think about the number of alcoholic drinks you consume (as well as their strength) to help you cut down your alcohol intake and reap the potential numerous health benefits, which include weight loss, better skin and increased energy.'