On 20th June 2007, the North West Evening Mail reported that a 67 year old man, who contracted mesothelioma whilst working at Vickers shipyard in Barrow during the 1960s, has been award £102,000 in compensation.
Ken McDonald, aged 67, was relieved to receive the compensation which will ensure that his wife and family are provided for.
He worked as an electrician's mate on HMS Dreadnought from 1961 to 1963, and he used to carry bags of asbestos for the electricians to use when lagging pipes on the submarine. He would come home covered in asbestos dust but had no idea it could harm him.
When he was diagnosed with mesothelioma, he contacted the Barrow Asbestos Related Disease Support Group. They put him in touch with his former union, the GMB and their legal experts Thompsons Solicitors.
He said: "When I was diagnosed with mesothelioma I was not surprised but it was a tremendous shock. "Usually when you’re diagnosed with this illness they give you between two and 12 months. You’ve just got to get on with it and take each day as it comes."Mr McDonald urged anyone who suspects they have mesothelioma to contact BARDS.
He said: "If I hadn’t gone to them I wouldn’t have got my interim payment from the government, which you get almost immediately.
"The solicitors they put you in touch with are the specialists in their field.
"The work that has been done by the GMB and Thompsons just shows how important it is to join a union.
"I was in one when I worked at Vickers. Now, decades later, they have helped me."
For the full story, click on the link below:
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=511854
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