‘Silent killer’ claims woman’s life
Household chore led to tragedy years later
WHEN Vivienne Swain dusted off, washed and pressed her husband’s overalls she never could have imagined the consequences.
The mum-of-two thought nothing of it when her husband came home from his job as a joiner in Rochdale covered in dust. She simply put his clothes in the washing with everything else. But that simple household chore would eventually lead to her death.
Vivienne, who was laid to rest on Friday, was the victim of asbestos, the silent killer that has claimed the lives of thousands of working-class people who came into contact with it. Many of the men and women affected by asbestosrelated diseases spent decades in tough industrial jobs – only to die just months after retiring.
Asbestos can remain latent in the lungs for decades, and most people only develop the related diseases years after breathing it in.
Years after her husband’s days as a joiner, when Vivienne was widowed, she developed a chest infection which she couldn’t shift. The grandmother-of-six, then 59, was told she may have developed asthma and prescribed an inhaler. While on holiday in Rhodes she noticed herself getting breathless.
An x-ray revealed that a third of her lung had collapsed and she was immediately admitted to hospital - triggering memories of her late husband’s cancer battle.
In August 2015, Vivienne was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an incurable asbestos-related cancer which killed 2,595 in Britain in 2016, according to the Health and Safety Executive. This country has the world’s worst incidence of mesothelioma deaths – a legacy of our heavy use of the fire-proof substance in construction and industry after the war.
And, despite the dangers being known much earlier, asbestos was only banned in 1985 and can still be found in some old buildings.
When materials containing asbestos are disturbed, fibres can be inhaled and can lead to diseases including asbestosis, mesothelioma and pleural thickening. It can take up to 50 years for the diseases to manifest themselves. Symptoms include shortness of breath and persistent coughing.
Describing the moment she was diagnosed, Vivienne had said: “She said those words ‘incurable’ and I remember a sense of cold going right through my body.
“I didn’t cry and was in a way relieved that I knew what was wrong with me. I wanted to know how long I had. It was a pleasant surprise to be told the ‘best of three years.’”
Vivienne, who was treated at Wythenshawe Hospital and underwent two cancer trials, refused to be cowed by her illness.
She went on holidays and visited Cape Town for three months with her partner Ian Johnstone.
“I count myself lucky to be have this wonderful time with Ian and my sons, lucky that I have Ian and his unwavering love and support, grateful to my sons of for being there for me,” she said.
Vivienne died last month – two years and 10 months after her diagnosis. Her funeral coincided with Action Mesothelioma Day – an event she spoke at several times.
Ian says Vivienne would have been happy that her story was raising awareness of mesothelioma.
“It’s opened my eyes – I didn’t known what mesothelioma was before,” he says. “When you used to look at the statistics it was always an old man’s disease. Now I notice a lot more younger people. When Vivienne was diagnosed she was the youngest in her support group.
“When she was diagnosed she stood up and said ‘I will not be defined by this, I will carry on with my life’. And she did.”
Steve Dickens, a lawyer who has spent years working for victims of asbestosrelated illnesses, says: The mesothelioma epidemic is possibly the greatest public health scandal this country has seen for generations.” In Greater Manchester, several factors fuelled the epidemic.
Turner & Newall, at one time one of the biggest asbestos companies in the world, had factories in Rochdale, Trafford Park and Hindley Green.
More raw asbestos was unloaded at Salford Docks than any other port in the country, and the use of asbestos to insulate steam engines and railway carriages saw many workers at Horwich locomotive works heavily exposed to asbestos dust.