Campaigner’s grieving family back change call
THE family of a man who died of mesothelioma after being exposed to killer asbestos as a teenager yesterday backed the new Bill.
In 2010, Charlie Bridgewater, from Denny in Stirlingshire, was diagnosed with the aggressive lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure – before it spread to his brain and liver.
The former Scottish snooker, darts and golf champion bravely fought the illness up until his death in 2015 and campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of the industrial disease.
In 2014, the terminally ill dad of two wrote to every MSP about the “grave injustice visited upon victims by the Scottish Parliament” after watching a proposal to offer more support to asbestos victims rejected at Holyrood.
And in the days before his death a year later, aged 69, he made a final plea to the Scottish Government to get information about the dangers of asbestos out to schools and colleges before it’s too late.
Charlie was exposed to asbestos BY SALLY HIND dust for eight years, from the age of 15, when he was an office junior and then traffic manager at a haulage company in Glasgow.
Every day, he and his colleagues would sit on burst bags of asbestos dust to eat their lunch, then brush themselves down before going back to work, oblivious to the fact that it was dangerous.
His daughter Donna Comrie, 46, said: “I think my dad would have been very supportive of the Bill.
“Why should the NHS have to cover the costs relating to these terrible illnesses?
“They tried various treatments to try and extend my dad’s life and chemotherapy, which failed.
“I would imagine the cost of my dad’s treatment would have been extensive for the NHS.
“Why should they struggle with the costs when they could be helping more sick people?”