HSE

When Debz Haigh walks down the aisle next year, it won't be her father David giving her away. Instead her mum, Ann, will perform the proud honour on a day sure to be filled with as many painful memories as happy thoughts for the future.

Electrician David died aged 62 in 2004 from mesothelioma, a terminal lung cancer caused by exposure to deadly asbestos dust. David worked as a maintenance electrician in a carpet factory in Barnsley in two separate spells of employment in the 1960s where he regularly inhaled asbestos in powder form as the paste was mixed by colleagues around him.

The fact he had no direct contact with the substance yet still developed terminal mesothelioma some 40 years later is all too common - perfectly illustrating the exposure risks faced by maintenance workers like him.

Yorkshire-man David was not told about the dangers of asbestos, Ann remembers. She said:

"Although David never directly worked with asbestos, he couldn't get away from it because when the laggers came in and mixed their paste, which they used to call 'monkey muck', the asbestos powder went everywhere. He was constantly brushing against walls and getting it on his clothes, and he couldn't help but inhale particles if he was working above them or nearby.

"But that's just the way it was, and he didn't know any better. He had no mask, no protection, no overalls, no anything, and neither did anyone else at the time. Asbestos simply wasn't an issue, and he only discovered it was when he became ill and they made the link at hospital forty years later."

David became ill in December 2003 with a persistent cough that several courses of antibiotics failed to clear. Pleurisy was diagnosed and he was referred to Montagu Hospital in Mexborough for a lung drain. Two litres of fluid were taken, but he was readmitted several weeks later when the cough returned and more fluid on the lung was found.

Doctors at Mexborough referred him on to a more specialist team at the Northern General Hospital at Sheffield, where he was subsequently diagnosed with cancer. David and Ann then had an anxious wait until tests pinpointed mesothelioma, with the carpet factory link the obvious cause.

Ann, aged 58, continued: "David was a very straight-talking fella and when they told him he had mesothelioma, his response was 'What is it?, What can you do? and How long have I got?'. They told him there was no cure but not to think like that because he could live for a good few years yet.

"He had two bouts of chemotherapy in a bid to improve his quality of life, but this ultimately proved futile because he suffered an adverse reaction on both occasions. He also had radiotherapy at Weston Park Hospital (in Sheffield), where we went every day from our home in Brampton (Barnsley).

"But his health continued to deteriorate. He was constantly breathless and too weak to do anything. He couldn't go out or climb upstairs, and even eating a meal was too much for him. It was terrible to watch."

Ann worked at a local pub when David became ill, but she was forced to cut her hours and eventually resign to care for her husband. The couple's two daughters - Sarah and Debz also helped out, as did a MacMillan nurse, who sat with him to give Ann a break.

He spent his final days at Rotherham Hospice where he died in December 2004 aged 62, just ten months after mesothelioma was diagnosed.

Ann and David had been married for 24 years. He also left behind a two-year-old grandson in addition to his two daughters and a stepson.

Ann is keen to ensure her husband's death isn't in vain by supporting the HSE 'Asbestos - The Hidden Killer' campaign. She hopes that by revealing their ordeal, employers and employees at all levels will be more aware of the dangers of asbestos.

"I know there's a credit crunch, but disposable masks and overalls for those working with or near asbestos cost very little - and are certainly cheaper than the cost of life," added Ann.

"There's little doubt my husband's employers could and should have done more to minimise his exposure risk, but what's done is done. All I can do now is make others aware of the dangers, and hope that today's employers are a lot more responsible in this regard, providing appropriate safeguards, equipment and training."

It's a source of great sorrow to Ann that David won't be there to give his youngest daughter away.

"We all miss him and the wedding is going to be such a bittersweet day without him. I just hope David's story helps spare other families from the tragedy we have faced."