Coronation Street star Ken Cope lived for six years with the secret agony of a cancer "death sentence".
But veteran actor Ken, who plays Jed Stone in The Street, has now been informed that he NEVER had cancer and his diagnosis was wrong.
The 77-year-old TV legend, who first rose to fame as the spectral private eye Marty Hopkirk in "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)", sees the irony in the fact that he has cheated death.
Now angry Ken is demanding an apology from the NHS after he suffered a six-year nightmare "waiting to die" because of the wrong diagnosis.
Ken, who now lives in Merseyside, told how he first suffered chest pain in the when he was living in Oxford.
In October 2000 Ken suffered chest pains and was sent for tests and medical procedures at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford.
Within ten days Ken had a meeting with two hospital consultants who solemnly informed him that he had the incurable cancer mesothelioma.
Ken said: "I'd been suffering chest pain but I kept putting it to the back of my mind.
"Eventually I went to the doctor and he sent my to hospital for X-rays and checks.
"They drained fluid from my chest and sent me for a CAT scan.
"By this time I was feeling better but then they gave me the news I was fearing most."
Ken tells how he and his wife Renny attended a meeting with two chest consultants, Dr Robert Davies and Dr Malcolm Benson.
Ken added: "I remember them both sitting across from me. Dr Davies said he was ninety-eight per cent sure I had mesothelioma.
"As it sunk-in Dr Benson's words were ringing in my ears. He said 'It is incurable' and they both left me in no doubt my days were numbered.
"It was devastating to hear those words. I was totally stunned. Renny grabbed my hand with tears in her eyes.
"I asked them how I could have become exposed to asbestos, and they told me it was probably from a safety curtain in a theatre I used to work in.
"They even suggested I should think about getting a lawyer and suing the theatre for damages.
"I was told by a series of NHS doctors that they were virtually certain that I had mesothelioma.
"None of them would say how long I might live although one talked about the disease lasting as long as eight years after diagnosis".
Ken had no further treatment for cancer but consigned himself to living-out the rest of his life with cancer and respiratory problems.
In 2003 he moved back home to Merseyside to be near to members of his family and in 2005 he was referred to specialists at the The Liverpool Cardiothracic Centre.
Eventually he discovered the TRUTH when his GP told him that a specialist in Liverpool had established that that he has never suffered from cancer including mesothelioma.
In 2005 the consultant in Liverpool wrote to Ken's GP saying instead that he had "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."
But Ken recalls that he was not even told that he had been given the all-clear from mesothelioma until a year later.
He has been battling in vain since then to get an admission from the NHS that there was a misdiagnosis in his case and that doctors failed to inform him.
Said Ken: "The way I've been treated by the NHS is disgusting. At best there has been incompetence but beyond that I feel my case has been the subject of a cover-up conspiracy.
"The doctors got it wrong and instead of holding up their hands they failed to tell me for far too long that I did not have cancer.
"Six years in 2006 lawyers at the Churchill Hospital were still writing to say that had 'slow-growing' indolent mesothelioma.
"Yet in 2005 a doctor in Liverpool wrote to my GP that it was 'clear this man has never had cancer'.
"My GP told me that I was clear in 2006 and that meant for six years I lived under this false death sentence.
"All that time I have been waiting to die and then I found out I haven't had cancer after all.
"All I want is an apology from the hospital and the doctors who led me to believe I was dying, but to this day they are refusing to admit they were wrong.
"It's like they want me to have cancer. I feel very bitter about it."
Ken has been married to his wife Renny for more than 50 years. The couple met when Renny played Ken's on-screen girlfriend in Coronation Street.
Renny says she too has had to live through the heartache of her husband cancer scare and just wants an apology from the hospital.
Renny, 73, said: "If we had an apology from the beginning then we would never have been in this situation.
"I feel like we have been robbed of some quality time together because we have been living under the shadow of the cancer for six years.
"I was heartbroken when the doctors delivered the news that Ken was dying.
"I didn't know what I was going to do without him. He is my soulmate.
"Then when we found out, Ken had never had the disease it was such a relief.
"It was like a giant weight had been taken off our shoulders.
"We just want someone to say sorry now."
Professor Stephen Spiro investigated Ken Cope's complaint that the Oxford Churchill Hospital and its staff had misdiagnosed his illness and mismanaged his case. Prof Spiro published a report in July 2006 which cleared the hospital and the doctors concerned from any breach of duty or lack of care.
A spokesperson for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Mr Cope's case has been thoroughly investigated by the Trust and has been independently reviewed.
"The conclusion reached was that there was no negligence in the way Mr Cope's illness was managed."
The spokesman added: "Professor Spiro's report only reviewed Mr.Cope's care up until 2003.
"If another doctor two years later in 2005 says he doesn't have cancer then that is great news, but that doctor has been able to see Mr Cope's health develop for another two years before he came to that conclusion.
"While Mr Cope was in our care, he was always given a differential diagnosis which was made very clear to him.
"If the consultant did say that he was 98 per cent sure of mesothelioma then there was always that two per cent chance he did not have it."
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