We can help you claim
compensation following an accident
illness or injury - nationwide
Call: 0800 10 757 95
It doesn't matter how many times I write about it, whenever I find a new item about the killer cancer, mesothelioma, and how yet another worker has been diagnosed with the dreadful disease, I am outraged and appalled at the stories surrounding its use.
Further, it doesn't matter how triumphant it sounds that the worker has won their claim for compensation, the fact is that the likely outcome for the asbestos cancer patient is an untimely death; leaving loved ones, dependents friends and family, to grieve.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive, usually fatal, cancer that develops almost exclusively after exposure to asbestos fibres. As of yet, there is no known cure; the best that most patients can hope for is chemotherapy or radiation treatment to slow the insidious spread of the cancer, or extremely invasive lung surgery, carrying huge risks in itself, and which has not yet proved to be a foolproof method for halting the disease.
The latest reported case I have seen is of a 65-year-old ex-Swindon railway worker, who worked as an apprentice on the railways from the age of 15, along with his father and grandfather. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in August 2008.
It's a sad piece of knowledge, but mesothelioma has been dubbed The Swindon Disease due to the large numbers of railway workers in the town who have contracted the disease.
The rail worker said, "I'm a fourth generation railwayman but now I wish I had never been inside the place."
It is alleged that in the 1950's and 1960's exposure to blue asbestos in British Rail workshops was a common occurrence. The rail worker in question was employed in Shop 7, where he finished rail carriages and in Shop 24, where he repaired old carriages. He says the rail workers were not given information on the lethal substance or how to protect themselves from it; he and his co-workers had no idea about asbestos and its inherent dangers until the late 1970's.
But, of course, by then for many it was already too late. According to This is Wiltshire.co.uk between 1981 and 2005, 123 people from Swindon died from mesothelioma and other forms of asbestos-related cancer.
A specialist asbestos lawyer acting for the railway worker said, "British Rail in Swindon was responsible for exposing thousands of employees to asbestos and as a result people like [our client] are paying the price with their lives.
"It was important that we concluded his case quickly to bring [our client] some peace of mind and the reassurance that his family will be financially provided for after his death.
"This result was achieved by our specialist asbestos team pushing to reduce the time the claim takes to the bare minimum while ensuring the client receives the maximum compensation."
This man's case was resolved in 11 weeks, which constitutes very swift resolution of the matter and now the man can, at least, live the rest of his life with the mesothelioma compensation claim behind him, in the knowledge that his wife will be financially secure in the event of his death.
When I read about this short space of time for the compensation to be settled, I thought, finally the companies that have put so many workers and their families through so much misery are facing up to their responsibilities; they are treating their employees with a modicum of decency by not taking an interminable amount of time to settle claims. And then I thought, if they had taken the threat of asbestos more seriously when the dangers of its presence were first discovered, maybe some of these people may have been spared the misery of mesothelioma, the Swindon Disease, in the first place.
