Can anybody help?

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS OLD TIME LORRIES, COMPANIES AND DRIVERS (INTERACT
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I stumbled on this forum when I was googling something totally unrelated. I was surprised and happy when I found my husband’s name mentioned in one thread and in another I found a photograph of him! He was an HGV driver from 1969 to 2012 and I recognised many of the names mentioned from tales that he told me. It was more a way of life than a job.

In May 2012 he was diagnosed with Mesothelioma! Sometime in the previous 50 years he had breathed in a fibre of asbestos. We were in shock and denial, he was so fit and healthy before suddenly becoming breathless. He had no life insurance but was advised to claim compensation and that the T & G W Union would fund the legal fees. He never knew that his claim didn’t go ahead because the solicitor said there was a less than 50/50 chance of it being successful as he had no evidence to connect his contamination with his work.

For those people in this situation and diagnosed after July 25th 2012 (8 weeks after his diagnosis) the government has brought in new legislation so that the victims will get £123,000 compensation. (an admission of guilt for their neglect?) At least those unfortunate people will have peace of mind knowing their families will have some financial security.

I have decided that I must make an effort to claim the compensation that he should have had before it is too late and before I have to sell our home of 28 years. At 68 I am lucky enough to have a job as a teaching assistant but I can’t run the house on my wages.
I have just a few months left to try, after 3 years I can no longer claim.

My husband could remember going to factories that were being dismantled to pick up old machinery that may have had asbestos lagging for shipping abroad but he couldn’t remember where or when. In the early days he would pick up all kinds of loads but he couldn’t recall any details. People weren’t aware of how dangerous asbestos was.

If anybody can throw any light on where he may have inhaled the asbestos during the course of his job there may be a chance I can bring a claim against the insurers■■?. I’m not holding out much hope but feel that I should at least try.

Does anybody know of other HGV drivers who developed Mesothelioma? (This cancer can develop from breathing in just one microscopic fibre many years earlier, it is not the same as asbestosis)
If you have the slightest bit of information that might help I would be grateful if you would email me.

No money can compensate for the grief and lonely future or the trauma of nursing him in his final days. He was a stoic happy go lucky man and wouldn’t allow his family to see him in the final two weeks, he wanted them to remember him as he was when he was healthy.

He was an HGV driver from 1969 to 2012, he drove for Walkers Transport /J H Walker and Son Ltd in Peterborough then he drove for MAT until it went into administration (2006). After that until he became ill he did agency driving mostly for the Post Office.

Kind Regards

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Hi Grandmamon,
Very sorry to hear of your late husbands passing .I am afraid to say the ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY in the 60/70/80/90/s was a very closed industry, as most hauliers kept it to themselves what and where they were hauling ,all types of products.so i doubt if you will ever fine out.Hazard products were just loads.MOST CHEMICALS WERE REGULATED ON TANKERS.?

Was he in any of the Armed forces■■? ships were full of ASBESTOS.I would say, however ,i do not know but it would likely be that it was something that he was around a lot but did not take any notice of ,like brick works dust,cement dust??.i wish you luck .
There are a load of very good men on this site all ex drivers, and i hope you will get a positive response. rgds deckboypeggy.

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Very difficult to make a claim unless there were dates, premises concerned, materials being handled and evidence to back up a claim. During that period with many loads being loaded and unloaded by hand a driver came across a lot in his daily work which would now be classed as hazardous and have the necessary precautions taken but was then just thought of as ‘a dirty job’. I can recall some of the loads my Father handled was Asbestos and other such unclean materials that ships used to bring into our busy docks around the country, warehouses were also very dusty with the air full of particles that would be breathed in during the working day. Then there was the various materials used in the vehicles themselves such as brake and clutch linings. I wish you luck in your attempt to claim but if it was me I wouldn’t know where to start pointing the finger. Condolences to you and your family I hope if you pursue this you are able to find something to go on but unless you have some sort of record of what your Husband came across during his career then it may prove a difficult task. Frank.

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A very good friend of mine died just over a year ago aged 55 having suffered for 3 years from the same horrible disease, he traced his contamination back to when he was a young apprentice joiner using asbestos materials, he made a successful claim.

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hiya the hard working lorry drivers again…god knows how many of us are still alive…as said we never knew what we was carrying.
only last year when i was cleaning out some old offices i pulled up some of those 12x12 inch floor tiles they was a trip hazard.
some chap come along saying whos pulled these up…me i tripped over a couple and pulled them up…you need an asbestos permit
to move them… WHAT tiles…yes he said…i ve pulled stacks of them up when i ve moved house years ago…well he said they
still had asbestos in them years ago… i said i ve never been warned before…i used to carry asbestos sheets from Watford .we was
white over with dust no one ever warned us…i am 64 now it stuns me i am still breathing…i am sory what i ve put is of no use to
you ganmar but lorry drivers have always had a poor backup from either bosses or union plus we moved jobs that often its hard to
pinpoint one bad moment that may have corsed the problem…i tried for the earing problem been a sheet steel worker for many years…
the company i worked for is long gone…i know there is still insurance but all the people to answer the questions have long gone…
good luck…but don t bank on much.

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Hi. As everyone else says we all carried all sorts of dangerous and toxic loads, sometimes without knowing, did your husband spend any time as a mechanic or assistant in the workshop, I spent the first and last parts of my HGV career as a mechanic, brake lining dust was lethal, I have seen people blowing the dust from brake drums with an air line, this would go up like a cloud and to clear the area they were working in turn the air line on the cloud and blow it away from them, all over the workshop so everyone is at risk for their stupidity, this asbestos dust is so fine it lingers in the air for hours, hope this was of some use. Good Luck. Les.