A businessman was told he would have been dead within a month from a rare form of leukaemia, but a visit to the dentist may have saved his life.

Mark Owen, 50, from Gravesend, has started his battle against chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) after a blood test showed his white blood count was off the scale.

One in 100,000 suffer from CML and only three cases have been detected at Darent Valley Hospital in the past two years.

Mr Owen, who runs beauty salons, was ordered to have the blood test after being prescribed the painkiller co-codamol in Cornwall when a tooth fell out while he was on holiday with wife Kerrie.

The drug caused his spleen to enlarge and despite an initial ruling of constipation, he was eventually diagnosed.

“It was a big shock. Kerrie was in pieces. The end is a hard road but I was told I can either curl up and die or fight it – and I will fight this"- Mark Owen

Mark said: “The doctor said I would have had a massive coronary in a month.

“He said I would be dead.

“If my tooth hadn’t fallen out, I wouldn’t have been given the co-codamol and I wouldn’t have had a blood test.

“It was a big shock. Kerrie was in pieces. The end is a hard road but I was told I can either curl up and die or fight it – and I will fight this.

Mark believes the shocking diagnosis may be linked to growing up on the Pepperhill estate in Northfleet, where he lived opposite electricity pylons.

He added “I was asked if I’ve ever been to Chernobyl.

“I said ‘No, why would I want to go there?’ Then he asked me if I had been to a nuclear power station.

“Four of my friends who lived within 100 yards of me growing up have had rare cancers.

“There are too many things happening. It might be nothing but it is really weird.”

Mark has started taking chemotherapy tablets, which could take up to five years before he is cleared.

But his prognosis is good.

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