AS was employed as a lagger’s mate by Apex Insulation which sent him to work at schools, factories and offices in the London area. He had to pour asbestos out of paper bags into a large tub where he mixed asbestos with water and took it to where the laggers were working. He stripped off old asbestos from pipes and boilers and swept up waste asbestos with a broom into piles. He breathed huge quantities of asbestos for about a year.
50 years later he contracted the fatal asbestos tumour of mesothelioma. St Francis Hospice in Romford cared for him as an in-patient during the last three weeks of his life from 11 March to 2 April 2008.
When his widow LS sued Apex Insulation for damages, Rodney Nelson-Jones included a claim for the value of the charitable care which St Francis Hospice had applied to her late husband. £12,500 was recovered for this, as part of the overall £187,500 settlement, and has been paid over to the hospice. The hospice director Dr Corinna Midgley expressed herself delighted to receive such a substantial sum which she said will be used to support other patients under the care of the hospice.