Five-Figure Compensation for Sisters of Asbestos Victim

After a four-year legal battle, the seven sisters of a Plymouth woman killed by an asbestos-related disease have won a five-figure sum in damages from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Beverley McKnight was diagnosed with mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, in 2005 and died aged 46 just over a year later. The disease takes a long time to develop and it is often difficult to identify the symptoms. Once diagnosed, the outlook for mesothelioma sufferers is generally bleak as the vast majority die within a short time – typically 6 to 12 months – of diagnosis.

As a child, Ms McKnight had been inadvertently exposed to asbestos by her father, Albert Snow, who worked as a boiler maker and welder at Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth and often came home covered in the deadly substance. The children were all exposed to asbestos when they hugged their father and when they sat watching television with him. Before his death in 2002 from an aneurysm, Mr Snow was diagnosed with pleural plaques – small areas of fibrosis in the lungs that are caused by exposure to asbestos fibres.

The MoD eventually admitted liability for Ms McKnight’s exposure to asbestos and agreed a five-figure sum in settlement.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that 4,000 people in the UK die each year as a result of asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma is often diagnosed 30 or 40 years after the original exposure and it is thought that the number of cases will peak over the next ten years.

Information on the dangers and management of asbestos in the workplace can be found on the HSE website.