My father began to work at Blyth Power Station in 1964. He was a toolmaker, and was employed by the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) as a power station fitter. He liked to work on his lathe, but was called to perform other tasks, too, and was sent up inside the boiler house roof, to lag the boiler with raw asbestos. In 1974 he was diagnosed with Lung Cancer, and he died on 4th November that year, aged 61 years. He had worked just under 10 years for CEGB, and was allowed a small pension. After his death, a representative from the CEGB pension fund came to see my mother. He told her she was could have a portion of my father's pension, but the pension fund would only release this small pension to her if she signed an agreement that she would not take legal action against the CEGB to claim compensation. She agreed, and later signed the document. It was not until after her death in 2007 that I discovered just how tiny was that pension. A lawyer later told me that she should have claimed for compensation, but it was too late, so many years had passed.

After my father's death, my younger sister quietly took one of daddy's jackets home with her as a keepsake. Whenever she grieved for him she would bury her face in the jacket so that she could inhale the faint scent of my father. She did not know that the jacket was covered with dangerous asbestos fibres. Last year, 2008, she became ill with breathlessness and tiredness, and after investigations she was found to have mesothelioma, cancer of the pleural sac which surrounds the lungs. She died on Palm Sunday, 5th April 2009.

We engaged a lawyer to fight for a claim for compensation for my sister. He has told us that we will not win if we make a claim because my father's death is too long ago, and my sister's illness cannot be proved to be a consequence of my father's work with asbestos. She leaves a husband and two adult children, I have lost my birth family, and I now know that my mother was swindled out of her rightful compensation.

There are many other devastated families, our lawyer told me, ours is not the only or worst case. Is there no justice in the world? Well very little. Our judiciary system can only work within the laws we already have. Is it time to campaign for better regulation of asbestos and adequate compensation for those with disease and their families? Personally, I have faith that God in Heaven will give us justice, not in this life, but in the next. His justice will be tempered with mercy and love. I would despair without that faith. God has given me peace about my family, praise His name. I am thankful now for the years He gave me with them. Sandra Laythorpe

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