Ministry pays up

A woman who contracted asbestos-related cancer after hugging her father when he arrived home from work in the dockyard has won more than £100,000 in compensation. Plymouth mother-of-three Debbie Brewer is to receive a six-figure payout from the Ministry of Defence - 11 months after she made her initial claim.

She announced the news yesterday, a year to the day after she was diagnosed with mesothelioma - a lung cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

Mrs Brewer, aged 48, who does not wish to disclose the exact amount she will receive, said: "It's a relief I haven't got to worry about this any more.

"I can wipe the slate clean, start again and enjoy what I've got left of my life with my children."

Mrs Brewer's father Phillip Northmore was an asbestos lagger at Devonport dockyard between 1961 and 1966.

An inquest into his death in August 2006 found he had died aged 68 from small cell lung cancer, which was linked to asbestos.

Mrs Brewer said her father was a loving man who would hug her every night when he came home from a shift.

She was diagnosed with mesothelioma last November.

After the Ministry of Defence accepted liability in February she received an interim payment of £25,000.

Mrs Brewer, who continues to work full-time on the help desk for Orange in Plympton, added that the money would be used to support her and her family through her illness.

She has three children - 10-year-old Kieran, 18-year-old Richard and Siobhan, aged 21.

"I'm as pleased as I can be in the situation," she added. "The money is going to help cushion a lot of issues that may develop, such as my illness advancing and the time I'll have to take off from work.

"One of the big things will be for tuition fees for Kieran when he's older," she said, adding that she expected to receive a cheque by the end of the week.

Plymouth is a hotspot for asbestos-related deaths due to its past use at Devonport Dockyard in ships and buildings.

Figures show that 1,826 people in the South West - including 306 in Plymouth - died from asbestos-related mesothelioma between 1981 and 2000, with cases expected to peak in the next decade.

Debbie has done a great service to cancer sufferers everywhere. Her cancer, mesothelioma - like the 2,000 plus other cases each year - should not have occurred, and would not have occurred if workers had been properly protected in the workplace. This is not a hangover from a hazardous industrial past. More people today are dying of asbestos cancers than at any time in history. And we risk repeating the tragedy.
Almost a quarter of the workforce is regularly exposed to cancer causing substances. At the moment an estimated 18,000 people are dying each year as a result of exposures they've faced in recent decades. Compensation cases are frequently as close to justice as they people will ever get. And they provide a salutory lesson to employers that these cancers should be prevented. The publicity also alerts workers to the potential risks, and may mean someone somewhere avoids a potentially lethal exposure. 

Professor Rory O'Neill, Stirling University 
Editor, Hazards magazine www.hazards.org

I am sure that Debbie wishes she had not contracted this terrible desease & i am sure that she wishes that she did not have to fight for compensation. Her children & family must only feel proud of her efforts & anyone who is effected by Mesothelioma should understand her need to make the general public aware of the devastating effect Meso has on hard working families and @ the same time provide for her families future. I am saying thank you to Debbie on bahalf of my wonderful Dad John O`Hara who died an agonising death in Oct 05 - cause of death? Not being provided with a dust mask whilst working as a works foreman for Rolls Royce
Mrs Suzanne Marlborough, CLEVEDON SOMERSET

I read, with interest, the comment left by William, I am sorry he has an asbestos related illness also. As I said before, I did not work with asbestos, I have had this disease through no fault of my own. I have not dragged my family through the media. I know that he probably gets an industrial injury benefit that I am unable to get and if he was in my position, if he had never worked with it and found he had been exposed,
would he really sit back and do nothing? Don't attack me as I am an innocent in all this. I was
a child when I was exposed. I could do nothing to avert myself from getting Mesothelioma, if I could have then I would have. I have nothing but pride for my dad and he should never have been put through the anguish and trauma which is the same as William is suffering. It is a disgrace.
I am 48 years old and not sure if I will see my children grow and create their own families. That is so heartbreaking for me. I have a full time job and work to support my family. If I could rid myself of cancer, I would gladly give up that payment. If you would like to contact me, I have a website.
www.Mesothelioma-and-me.co.uk
Debbie Brewer, plymouth

The Lawyer, November 2007

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