Sally Cope
A CIVIL engineer given just months to live after being diagnosed with lung cancer is suing Yorkshire Water for £300,000 for allegedly exposing him to deadly asbestos.
John Kay, aged just 40, has launched the High Court action against Br
adford-based Kelda Group Plc – formerly Yorkshire Water – after he contracted the killer disease malignant mesothelioma, a progressive and incredibly painful cancer which is very difficult to treat.
Mr Kay discovered he had the disease in October 2003, when he was just 38, following a chest operation.
After discussions with his doctors, he opted to have further surgery and was admitted to hospital where he had part of his right lung removed and other serious surgery, followed by radiotherapy, but the cancer returned.
He believes he contracted the illness while working for the multi-million pound company during the late 1990s. Mr Kay, who lives in Bingley, claims he was exposed to dangerous levels of breathable asbestos when he worked at pumping stations at Headingley, Leeds, and Doncaster, and when supervising the refurbishment of Eccup Water Treatment Works, near Leeds.
Over a period of weeks there, he was on hand as workers drilled through concrete believed to have been treated with asbestos while laying power lines.
Mr Kay, who is married with two children aged 11 and eight, branded the company negligent for failing to prevent him from being exposed to the killer substance.
Now he has been given just months to live and does not know whether he will survive to see the outcome of his court battle.
"My abiding memory of Eccup was the dust and the noise," he said.
"There was a level of dust that you could see in the air. You could taste it in your mouth."
Mr Kay said his employers never gave him protective equipment, even though the Government had introduced strict regulations regarding the use of asbestos some 20 years previously.
"They should have provided me with appropriate guidance, information and equipment and none of that happened," he said.
"I'm disappointed, but I'm not bitter and twisted. I think I've been very unlucky."
Mr Kay said his greatest concern was financial security for his family. "To know the best years of your life have been cut short... it's supposed to be the best years of your life.
"You see those adverts on television with people in their 60s and 70s for retirement policies and you think, 'It's not going to be me'. So there is a little bitterness. I have been robbed, haven't I?"
A spokeswoman for Yorkshire Water said: "A claim has been lodged and is receiving consideration by our insurers."
Mr Kay's solicitor, Paul Webber, called for any former employees or contractors who may have information relating to the case to contact him in confidence on 0870 1500 100.
sally.cope@ypn.co.uk
