Woman compensated after contracting asbestos disease from grandfather's clothes

Published on Fri 24 Nov 2006

A Southsea woman has ended a landmark case against the Ministry of Defence who have agreed to pay GBP 145,000 compensation in an out-of–court settlement after being sued for negligence and breach of statutory duty, reports Portsmouth Today.

Michelle Campbell, 45, believes she contracted the fatal cancer mesothelioma after breathing in asbestos fibre from her grandfather’s work clothes. Her grandfather worked in the Portsmouth dockyards from the end of the Second World War until 1974.

Mrs Campbell said: “I was very close to my grandfather. He used to call in to our house after work nearly every night when we were little. He always wore the trousers, jacket and shirt he wore to work. I would sit on his lap and give him a cuddle.

“Doctors think there must have been asbestos on his clothes that was passed on to me.

“My granddad had bad health for years. We were told it was bronchitis and my mum was told he had something wrong with his lungs, but we never knew what it was.”