Did work overalls give me cancer?
FOR years doting wife Linda Coates washed her husband’s work overalls without blinking an eye.
But decades on she believes she is dying from an incurable cancer brought on by inhaling asbestos dust from his works clothes she constantly cleaned.
Linda has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos, and is now appealing for information from her late husband’s colleagues as she believes she came into contact with the substance while washing his work overalls.
Husband David died in 2002 after almost 30 years of marriage. But now the 64-year-old is living on borrowed time after medics told her in February 2016 she has the terminal disease.
Linda has instructed expert asbestos-related disease lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate how she came into contact with the hazardous substance and is trying to track down his former colleagues to help her fight for justice.
Linda, of Newcastle, said: “My mesothelioma diagnosis came completely out of the blue for me and I was even more shocked when I found out it may have been caused by inhaling asbestos dust and fibres my husband brought home on his overalls.
“I remember how dusty and dirty the overalls used to be when he came home and I used to get annoyed when he sat on the sofa with the overalls on. I always used to wash his overalls, but I never knew the dust and fibres might have been asbestos. I’m very concerned about my future and I just want to appeal to people who worked with David to come forward and help me if they can.”
David was employed as an electrical contractor and worked for a number of firms during his career, including Woolman Ltd, N G Bailey and Co Ltd and N E I Parsons Ltd. During his career he worked on a number of large industrial sites across the country, including at Didcot Power Station, in Oxfordshire. Linda recalls that when David was working away from home he would bring his dirty overalls, which were covered in dust, home and Linda would wash them before he went back to the accommodation provided near the sites.
Now Linda, along with her legal team, is appealing to those who worked alongside her husband to come forward with information they may have on the presence of asbestos at the sites they worked at, the measures in place to protect them from asbestos or any warnings in place about taking work overalls home.
Anyone who can provide information about working at Didcot Power Station in the 1980s, or about working conditions at Woolman Ltd, N G Bailey and Co Ltd and N E I Parsons Ltd should contact Amber Connolly at Irwin Mitchell on 0191 279 0111 or email amber. connolly@IrwinMitchell.com. David Coates, of Newcastle, whose wife Linda believes she is suffering an asbestos-related cancer after washing his overalls during his working life