From 1960 to 1962 PD worked with asbestos as a lagger’s labourer employed by Cape Insulation Ltd. From 1964 to 1968 he breathed more asbestos when employed by the Central Electricity Generating Board as a fitter’s mate at Bow Power Station. In the autumn of 2008, at the age of 66, he contracted malignant mesothelioma of the pleura.
His wife suffers from severe pain in her left knee, diabetes and oedema in her lower legs. She needs two wheelchairs and an electric scooter. Consequently PD performed such tasks as hoovering and dusting, hanging out the washing and bed-changing, taking her shopping and loading and unloading, general tidying around the house – all tasks which she will need to be performed for her after his death, probably by her paying someone to do them.
In a ground breaking settlement, Rodney Nelson-Jones helped PD to recover almost £50,000 in respect of his inability to perform these services for his wife after his death, thereby providing the funds for her to pay someone to carry them out. This formed part of the overall settlement figure of £218,000.