Coronation Street star Kenneth Cope – who plays Jed Stone – has revealed to the News of the World that he spent six years believing he was going to die of cancer after being incorrectly diagnosed with the disease.

Kenneth, who’s 77, was told by specialists at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford that he had mesothelioma, a cancer that is almost always caused by contact with asbestos. He was referred to the hospital eight years ago after experiencing severe chest pain and shortness of breath.

In 2005, Kenneth was sent to more specialists in Liverpool in who, a year later, told him the diagnosis of mesothelioma was wrong and he actually had the lung condition chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which, though serious, isn’t necessarily fatal and isn’t a cancer.

Cope told the newspaper: “For six years I lived under a false death sentence. Read more & comment »