Asbestos-related cancer warning from Middlesbrough mum

A woman living with a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos is trying to raise awareness of the dangerous substance.

Asbestos can be found in many older buildings including schools, homes and hospitals.

Helen Bone, from Marton-in-Cleveland, Middlesbrough, worked for 25 years as a nurse.

He now raises awareness to help others and said it was no longer “an old man’s disease”.

Mesothelioma is incurable and symptoms can take 20 to 50 years to appear.

They include fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain and a persistent cough.

Mrs. Bone was diagnosed in 2021, at the age of 38, when residual chest pain would not go away after recovering from Covid.

An ultrasound scan showed a large collection of fluid on his lung.

The 42-year-old asks to put in place a plan to rebuild and repair public buildings.

“If we don’t do it, more and more people will die and that’s just the reality of it,” he said.

“We have to be proactive.

“We cannot expect it to become an absolute national emergency.”

Ms Bone said people diagnosed with mesothelioma are no longer “your labourers, your electricians, your miners – they are teachers, doctors, nurses, clerks”.

“People who went to work, they did their job, and they were sentenced to death because of this terrible material that was not managed properly,” he said.

“I want people to be aware.

“I don’t want anyone to have to go through what me and my family had to go through.”