Family of former councillor wins £300,000 case against factory

A MAN who wrote his own obituary before dying of cancer has been posthumously awarded a £300,000 settlement after being exposed to asbestos on his father’s work clothes.

Philip Round, a former journalist and town councillor from Hebden Bridge, died of mesothelioma aged 66 in 2018, after coming into contact with asbestos dust years earlier on clothes hung out in his kitchen.

His father, Joseph, died of a similar industrial disease, asbestosis, in 1994, after he spent his working life at the Acre Mill asbestos product factory, near Hebden Bridge.

Before his death, Mr Round began legal proceedings with lawyers who proved his exposure to the debilitating dust had been at his family home through after-work hugs with his father or being around the washing.

Mr Round’s wife Judith continued his battle for compensation and was awarded the £300,000 settlement from Cape Acre Mill, which declined to comment.

She said: “Philip suffered appallingly during his illness and nothing our excellent doctors did could take away his pain. He set about trying to build a case against Cape Asbestos, but in the end he was too ill to finish it off.” Lawyer Pauline Chandler added: “Hebden Bridge has been blighted by asbestosrelated disease and death of almost epidemic proportions. Almost every family in that area was touched by it in the 20th century.”

Mr Round served ten years on Hebden Royd Town Council, becoming their youngest ever Chairman in 1976, aged just 24.