Compensation for cancer widow

Mr Chapman remembered workers throwing asbestos snowballs

A widow whose husband died of cancer after working on Swindon's railworks in the 1940s, has been awarded £100,000 in compensation.

Audrey Chapman's husband William died in February 2001 aged 77 from mesothelioma, known locally as the Swindon Disease.

The cancer has killed hundreds of former workers from the town's railway workshops, who died after being exposed to asbestos.

The case is one of the first to be brought since the House of Lords decided last year that mesothelioma claimants could sue two or more defendants - and did not have to prove where the fatal fibre had come from.

I currently have around 70 similar cases pending Brigitte Chandler solicitor

Mr Chapman worked for British Rail in Swindon from 1939 to 1946 and then for seven years on ships for Anglo Saxon Petroleum.

The payout was split 75-25 between British Rail and Anglo Saxon Petroleum.

Brigitte Chandler, solicitor at Charles Lucas & Marshall, who acted for Mrs Chapman, told BBC News Online: "Both companies eventually accepted responsibility for the death of Mr Chapman, although they had originally tried to deny liability.

"The cancer can take 60 years to come through.

No warning

"One case I had was a man who worked with asbestos in the 1930s and developed the cancer when he was 80.

"The law states that you have to bring a case within three years of diagnosis. I currently have around 70 similar cases pending."

Before his death in 2001, Mr Chapman remembered colleagues in Swindon making snowballs with asbestos and throwing them at each other.

His wife says he was given no masks, protective clothing or warning about the dangers of asbestos.