Asbestos Related Illness

A gardener who developed a deadly asbestos-related disease has won £205,000 in compensation from his former employers. Mr Gaffney, 57, worked for the University of Liverpool during the 1980s looking after the grounds. He used to take his lunch breaks...

A former employee of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been awarded £65,000 in damages after he developed asbestosis. Alan Cox, 85, worked in dockyards and on ships where he was repeatedly exposed to asbestos. This first occurred when he worked for...

A grandfather who contracted an asbestos-related cancer has won £140,000 compensation, even though an initial attempt to trace the insurers of his former employers proved unsuccessful. Ronnie Cadwallader, 76, was exposed to asbestos when he worked as...

The widow of a man who died as a result of being exposed to asbestos while working at an oil refinery many years earlier has been awarded more than £300,000 in compensation in the High Court. Frances Streets’ husband began his career working for...

A pensioner who developed an asbestos-related disease has won compensation for his illness. The man, who had worked for a variety of employers in the Cambridgeshire area, was exposed to asbestos at work on a daily basis. Despite this, he was neither offered...

A man whose wife died of mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs, heart or abdomen and is almost exclusively caused by exposure to asbestos, has won an undisclosed amount in compensation. June Probin, who was a trained nurse, knew...

The family of a man who died in 2007 of an asbestos-related disease has won the right to compensation. The man used to work as a self-employed tailor but lack of business forced him to change his line of work in order to support his family. He took a job in...

An electrician has received damages after he developed an asbestos-related disease as a result of being exposed to the deadly substance in the course of his work. Ken Morton, 70, developed asbestosis after a 45-year career as an electrician. He was exposed...

A former dock worker who is dying of the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma has been awarded substantial compensation after a three day trial in the High Court. Ian Waite, 62, worked for the Tees and Hartlepool Port Authority, between 1972 and the late...

The widow of a school teacher who died from mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos in a school’s science laboratories has been awarded compensation. The unnamed man worked as a chemistry teacher at a school in East Sussex for 34 years. He...

A man diagnosed with the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma has been awarded £200,000 in compensation. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, worked as a labourer’s mate, mixing asbestos for use in the insulation of boiler pipes in a power...

The family of a former shipwright who died of the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma has received £112,000 in compensation. The man worked for the Ministry of Defence at HM Dockyards in Devonport as an apprentice shipwright from 1941 to 1946....

The family of a 60-year-old teacher who died of an asbestos-related disease have won their claim for compensation. Terence Dugdale was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer that attacks the lining of the lung, after he was exposed to asbestos 40 years...

The family of a Lancashire man has received more than £74,000 in compensation after he died from asbestos-related mesothelioma – a cancer of the lining of the lungs. The 65-year-old man had worked as a labourer for a firm in Chorley and was...

A recent case illustrates that, contrary to popular conception, the risk of developing an asbestos-related illness is not confined to ship and dockyard workers or those who have worked in heavy industry as laggers and maintenance electricians. A Royal...

Two further cases concerning exposure to asbestos in the workplace have resulted in a former lift engineer and the widow of an electrician being awarded substantial six-figure sums in compensation. The first case concerned a lift engineer who was exposed...

A recent ruling in the High Court means that those claiming compensation for the fatal asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma could now be in line for six-figure sums. The decision confirms that mesothelioma sufferers are able to claim compensation from the...

Another case has illustrated that it is not necessary to have worked with asbestos to be a victim of asbestos-related illness. The family of a man who died of mesothelioma decades after playing in asbestos dust when he was a child has been awarded...

A decision of the High Court has brought relief to sufferers from mesothelioma and their families who had seen their expected compensation claims put on hold as the result of an earlier decision. The earlier decision was in the Court of Appeal which ruled...

The family of a man who died of a deadly lung cancer has been awarded £205,000 in compensation. The man had been exposed to asbestos as a teenager while laying telephone cables when he worked for a company that was later bought by British Telecom...

Pleural plaques are a form of scarring of the lungs caused by their being penetrated by asbestos fibres. Since pleural plaques do not themselves cause any physical symptoms, the House of Lords ruled last year that compensation was not payable to people who...

The widow of a mesothelioma victim has won a six-figure sum in compensation after her husband was exposed to asbestos at work. Ronald Rumney had worked for British Nuclear Fuels at Sellafield as an electrician from 1960 until his retirement in 1994. Mr...

The family of a woman who was unknowingly exposed to asbestos at work has succeeded in a claim for compensation against her former employer. Margaret Dobson died just 5 months after she was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Until her diagnosis she was unaware...

A woman who developed mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos fibres when handling her husband’s clothes has been awarded £130,000 in compensation. Jacky Merritt’s husband, Don, worked as a lagger for a large asbestos company. Mrs...

Mesothelioma, which is caused by asbestos exposure, is a particularly lethal form of cancer that attacks the cells lining the body's internal organs, but it is most often found in the lungs. Overall, the prognosis for sufferers is poor. By the time someone...

A former electrician has been awarded £20,000 in damages after he developed asbestosis, a crippling respiratory disease.   Peter Guy, now 74, worked for Harland and Wolf in its Liverpool shipyard in the 1960s as an electrician. He remembers...

The widow of a man who died of mesothelioma in his late sixties, after being exposed to asbestos decades ago, has been awarded £122,000 in compensation.   Harry Worth was diagnosed with the deadly asbestos-related cancer in February...

After a long fight, the family of a woman who died in 2002 from asbestos-related cancer has received a five-figure sum in settlement of a compensation claim against her employers.   In 1957, Martha May Charlson had appeared on a poster promoting Turner...

In two recent asbestos-related compensation cases, claimants have successfully obtained damages from their former employers. In the first case, a 73-year-old former welder, who has been diagnosed with lung cancer from asbestos exposure, was awarded...

A plumber and pipe fitter who was exposed to asbestos at work from an early age has won over £150,000 in compensation after he developed mesothelioma, a deadly cancer affecting the lining of the lungs. Charles Cochran, 67, started his career at age...

A woman who is dying of mesothelioma, a deadly lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, has been awarded a six-figure sum in compensation. Debbie Brewer's father worked at Devonport Dockyard as a lagger in the 1960s. During this period he regularly came...

A shipbuilder's family has won more than £100,000 in compensation after he died of mesothelioma, a type of cancer related to asbestos exposure. Frank Ede had worked for a shipbuilder from 1943 to 1976, initially as a burner before becoming a plater....

In two separate cases, two widows have won substantial compensation after their husbands died of mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer of the lungs caused by exposure to asbestos. The women brought claims against their husbands’ former employers who had...

A maintenance fitter and an oven fitter's widow have both won substantial compensation in separate asbestos-related cases. In the first case, an unnamed man was exposed to asbestos while working for the British Airport Authority as a fitter and boiler...

A former roofer has been awarded more than £160,000 in compensation after developing mesothelioma, an aggressive form of lung cancer, as a result of being exposed to deadly asbestos fibres in the course of his employment. Jim Kingshott, 57, was...

A former shipyard worker has been awarded nearly £1m in compensation after developing mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos at work. Raymond Shanks, 59, worked for the shipbuilders Swan Hunter for four years from 1965. During this time he was in close...

The family of a Lancashire man has received more than £74,000 in compensation after he died from asbestos-related mesothelioma – a cancer of the lining of the lungs.   The 65-year-old man had worked as a labourer for a firm in Chorley...

Two further cases dealing with compensation for exposure to asbestos highlight the extent of the problems caused when this deadly substance is not handled correctly. In the first case, Frederick Allen was awarded £128,500 after developing mesothelioma...

The Government has announced plans to speed up the payment of compensation to mesothelioma sufferers. The disease, an aggressive form of cancer associated with asbestos exposure, can kill its victims quickly and sometimes compensation claims...

The widow of a man who suffered from mesothelioma has won £185,000 in compensation. Her husband had worked as an electrician for a large London-based company for twelve years in the 1960s and 1970s. During that time he had frequently been required to...

Asbestos-related diseases are thought to have caused more than 4,000 deaths last year in the UK, whilst many other people presented with the first symptoms of illness caused by exposure to asbestos. One of the worst diseases associated with asbestos is...

 A Cheshire woman has secured £155,000 in an out of court settlement after her husband died of the asbestos-related disease, mesothelioma. Her husband had first worked as an apprentice joiner for W J Bush & Son from 1956 to 1964, where he...

A recent out of court settlement could give welcome relief to future sufferers of asbestos-related diseases who are seeking compensation. Former carpenter, Amarjeet Singh Dahele, won £400,000 in compensation from construction firm Thomas Bates and Son....

The widow of former scaffolder Bill Byrne, who was exposed to asbestos and died of lung cancer, has won her battle for compensation. Mr Byrne, who died in 2002 aged 71, had worked for Lyndon Scaffolding and Mills Scaffolding in the 1950s and 1960s. Mr...

Two former dockers have welcomed a recent High Court decision which means that they, and others, can sue the Government for compensation for asbestos-related illness. This is a major breakthrough because in the past the Government has refused to take...

Exposure to asbestos is the greatest single cause of workplace deaths in the UK.   The House of Lords recently ruled that where a worker contracts mesothelioma after having been exposed to asbestos by more than one employer, responsibility for the...

Another death linked to possible exposure to asbestos in a school has occurred. Victor Kirk, 66, a retired caretaker from Paignton in Devon, died from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma on 6 April 2006. He had spent much of his working life as a school...

The employers of men who died as a result of contracting mesothelioma after being exposed to asbestos fibres at some time during their working lives have won their appeal against a decision that had a fundamental impact on their potential liabilities. As a...

At least five people die each day from the asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma. It is a very painful illness, particularly in its later stages. A 57-year-old man who had lived a healthy life recently died of the disease as a result of exposure to asbestos...

The Court of Appeal has overturned a High Court ruling that people suffering from pleural plaques were entitled to claim compensation. Pleural plaques are areas of thick scar tissue which develop on the outer layer of the pleura surrounding the lungs. They...