Secretary dies from asbestos cancer

Mrs P was born and brought up in South Africa.  She trained as a secretary in Durban before coming to England.  She fell in love with her husband to be and stayed in London. They married and had two children.

She found work as a secretary at the Central Asbestos Factory in Mile End London. It was here that she breathed in the asbestos fibres which would eventually take her life.

Mrs P was exposed to asbestos at the Central Asbestos Factory when the factory chemist brought in a bag of raw asbestos samples, which she bagged up and sent to various companies. 

Mrs P and her husband were on holiday in New Zealand when her breathlessness and tiredness forced her to attend a GP.  When she returned home she was given the devastating diagnosis of mesothelioma, which came as a terrible shock to her and her family.  She contacted us to investigate the possibility of bringing a compensation claim.  She sadly died before we could conclude the claim.  The case continued on behalf of her family and was dealt with on a ‘no win no fee’ basis.

We started a court action utilising a specialist mesothelioma fast track procedure in a court in London.  Mrs P’s former employers agreed they were at fault. 

Mrs P’s husband received a six figure out of court settlement.  This included a sum to compensate him for the loss of contribution that Mrs P made to the family home such as cooking and general housework.  We also claimed for the cost of paying staff to replace Mrs P’s role in running the family farm.  We were able to recover the cost of having a stair lift installed which enabled Mrs P to be cared for at home for as long as possible.

Carolann Hepworth, partner in our Manchester office said, “Mrs P was a healthy, happy woman who was playing an active role in the family business and home when she was diagnosed with mesothelioma.  I am pleased to be able to obtain compensation for her husband, who was robbed of his wife.”

Further information:
Carolann Hepworth, Solicitor  
John Pickering and Partners
Old Exchange Buildings
St Ann’s Passage
29-31 King Street
Manchester M2 6BE

Telephone: 0161 834 1251
E-mail: ch@johnpickering.co.uk
Website: www.johnpickering.co.uk
FREEPHONE: 0800 854201
www.mesotheliomaadvice.co.uk

Notes

John Pickering and Partners LLP- Specialist mesothelioma compensation solicitors
We are a specialist personal injury law firm.  We have been handling claims for industrial disease for over 30 years.  Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims.  We only act for the sufferers of asbestos diseases and never act for the organisations that caused the asbestos exposure or their insurers.  We have an ethical approach and pledge to donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers.  Click here to find out about our donations to good causes.  We have also been involved in most of the landmark judgments that shape this area of law.  Find out more about us or find out about our reported cases.  We are on the panels of several asbestos support groups and are ranked highly by legal guides.  Click here to find out more about what others have said about us.

John Pickering and Partners LLP is a niche legal practice that has represented Claimants in the leading asbestos "test cases" in the last ten years. The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus (UK) Plc, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims. The firm represented two of the three Claimants in the Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.

The firm represented Alice Jefferson, a mesothelioma sufferer, whose illness and compensation claim against Cape Asbestos were featured in the important documentary "Alice: A Fight For Life."   Shown by Yorkshire Television in July 1982, the programme was an important catalyst for legal change and public awareness of the plight of mesothelioma and other asbestos disease sufferers and a prompt for important legal reform.

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of certain bodily organs.  It most commonly affects the lining of the lungs (the pleura) but it can affect other areas including organs in the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum).

According to the British Lung Foundation, more than 2,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year in the UK and there is one mesothelioma death every five hours. The number of deaths from mesothelioma increased from 153 in 1968 to 1,969 in 2004 and is expected to peak at 2,450 between 2011 and 2015.

The British Lung Foundation, supported by John Pickering and Partners LLP, launched the first Action Mesothelioma Day on 27th February 2006, to raise awareness about mesothelioma, to improve the treatment and care of mesothelioma patients, and to lobby for better funding for research into mesothelioma and for the protection and education of people working with asbestos.

If you need advice about an asbestos related illness, contact us now for information about making a claim for compensation.

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