Asbestos-hit family seeks justice

Robert Sutcliffe

A FAMILY are fighting for compensation after discovering eight siblings had developed an incurable lung condition triggered by their father working at an asbestos factory in the 1930s.

The brothers and sisters all have pleural plaques scarring on the lungs due to exposure to asbestos – yet none has ever worked with the dangerous substance, blocking them from claiming a financial payout.

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Their father was a foreman at an asbestos factory and regularly had to unblock extractor fans clogged with the deadly dust.

The family’s other two siblings are not affected because they were born after their father quit the firm.

Now the condition has left the eight with varying degrees of shortness of breath and the increased likelihood of developing cancer.

Their father, Korah Leah, left the Cape Asbestos factory in Hebden Bridge in 1947, stopping work altogether in 1958.

He died of lung cancer 10 years later, aged 68.

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Daughter Maureen McGeogh, 72, of Luddenden, near Halifax, was diagnosed with pleural plaques in 2005. The mother-of-three said: “When he came in from work, we'd all crawl all over him and hug him and he would be covered in dust.

“I remember my mother shaking his overalls and dust going everywhere. We sometimes went to work with him on Sunday and would play in the piles of dust.

“We just didn’t realise it was dangerous. It’s a terrible thing to happen to one family. I don’t talk to my kids about it. It’s just too upsetting.

“Dad’s death was awful, just terrible. He was such a doting dad. He would be devastated if he knew about this.”

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Seven of her siblings also suffer form lung problems – Gerald, 78, has pleural plaques and emphysema, Cecelia, 76, suffers badly from emphysema, and then there are Cedric, 74, Rosalind, 71, Raymond, 69, Marjorie, 67, and Glynn, 64, who all suffer from scarred lungs.

The only ones unaffected are Kathleen, 63, and Vincent, 61. Cedric said: “I was diagnosed in the early 80s but it didn’t affect me as much then. I still manage now but it is more effort, going up a hill I sound like a steam engine with a broken gasket.

“The dust was all over him when he came home from work and it was so light it just puffed in the air.

“I’m not annoyed that we don’t get compensation but am annoyed that they can get it in Scotland, surely it should be one rule for everybody.”

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A change in the law entitles those with plaques to 5,000 compensation but only if they worked with asbestos.

The government has said it will not pay out to secondary exposure cases, unlike in Scotland where all cases receive a payout. The Ministry of Justice says it will consider compensation if secondary exposure develops into something more serious. Maureen McGeogh said: “I think my father was one of the first to be diagnosed, you could tell he wasn't well when he walked up a steep hill.

“Cecelia has no plaques that we know but has emphysema and is in a wheelchair and needs oxygen. She says she has never been diagnosed but has all the same symptoms as my father.

“He was a doting father, he wasn't a drinker. If he though for one minute that he would pass this on to us he would be mortified. We just didn't know how dangerous the asbestos was to people then, I’m sure lots of people may be affected by it.

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“In the end it’s not about the money, it’s the injustice of it all.

“It’s the injustice of it. If other people are getting money then everyone should be getting it. It’s our money that's going to Scotland to pay for it.

“And why should I wait until I get more poorly, when this money should be rightfully mine? I just think it is terrible, its not even the money, it’s the principle – if we lived in Scotland we would be OK.’’

Mother-of-three Rosalind said: “It’s in the back of your mind, but you don't want to think how long you've got left.”

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Lawyer Ruth Davies, who has been representing the family, said: “It is grossly unfair these people are not entitled to compensation. I would ask the Ministry of Justice to reconsider.”

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